“Fixed” rudder

Stopped by early to see Albert, told me his guys would be there right after lunch to put the “fixed” rudder back in. I spend a few hours in putting a coat of Poly-glow on the hull. This stuff is a polymer coating that is much easier to put on than wax and lasts a lot longer. We have a nice shine again on our hull. Robert provides me with some bottom paint for the bottom of the wing keel, which obviously lost some paint with our grounding.

It is getting late and Alberts guys still have not shown up. Finally they arrive around 3:30 PM. Since they normally quit at 4:00PM this does not look good for completing today. The re-welded post is not straight and the weld site has not been ground down to a small enough diameter to fit back into the rudder post tube. It took a lot of grinding of the weld site and grinding of the fiberglass shell of the rudder to get the rudder to “slide” in place. Then it turns out they shortened the rudder post, so the holes through the top of the post will not allow the rudder bearing to fit. I am not happy. I had told them to error to the long side since the rudder would work fine if it hung a little lower. I do not have enough confidence to sail off with this fix and return in a couple weeks to install the new rudder. We will stay in the area until the new rudder arrives. Its irritating to have to pay for this additional labor to fix their f**kup.