In January 2012 we had the boat at the Hinckley yard in Annapolis, Maryland where we were getting some major work done in the galley along with several other projects. Once the boat was pulled I discovered blisters on the rudder and added this repair to the list of work to be done. It was decided to take care of this right away and when they pulled the rudder to repair the blisters they found that the stuffing box had some damage. Apparently Island Packet used stainless steel studs to bolt down the bronze stuffing box. Two of the studs were badly corroded due to dissimilar metals. One of them was just a shell with threads and was completely eaten away inside. But there's more. Once the rudder post was out of the way they also found that the sleeve, the metal tube the shaft runs through where it enters the hull, was cracked. They removed the stuffing box, which includes the sleeve and a mounting plate combined, and found the area underneath the plate was leveled with several inches of epoxy and the epoxy was cracked in a number of places. The fiberglass underneath that was totally soaked from seawater leaking in. It was so soft you could press a nail into it. The repair required taking out the old epoxy and removing the mushy fiberglass, then building it back up again after it had dried out. Once the fiberglass was repaired we glassed in a G10 tube to hold the new sleeve ("G-10/FR-4 is a thermosetting industrial laminate consisting of a continuous filament glass cloth material with an epoxy resin binder. It has characteristics of high strength, excellent electrical properties and chemical/water resistance not only at room temperature but also under humid or moist conditions."). The epoxy was then replaced to give the plate a flat surface to bolt up to and new studs (silicon bronze) embedded in the epoxy.
The completed repair is now sooooo much stronger than what the factory had done. The first picture here shows the area after it's been cleaned up. The G10 tube is epoxied in place and the stuffing box / mounting plate / sleeve assembly is ready to be glassed into place. The next picture shows the bolt heads have been epoxied in position and the first plate is glassed in. The final picture shows everything glassed in up to the top of the tube. This is incredibly overbuilt which is fine with me. 
