Rudder coupling weld

Commercial coastal fishing boat 50 foot, complete rudder failure resulting in grounding and hull damage. Not a hard failure analysis !

Flag rules ( NSCV) required the flange to have been fully welded to the shaft and annealed (both 316). It's a fillet weld and nothing more.
Insurance company is not happy. So it'll sit for a while on the hard accumulating fees while the lawyers play the usual game.

 

I'd love to be a fly on the wall for this conversation!!

 

Of course no one will "recall" who did what.
It's an eye opener as to to check the rudder shaft it's usual to have the heel bearing removed, and drop the whole rudder and shaft attached to do a visual for corrosion, without unbolting the coupling. I'm presuming this was a repair/replacement at some stage by a machinist who doesn't normally work on boats.

For ref for others I'll post a pic of what the prep should have looked like before multi pass welding turning and annealing, a much more expensive job when it's done properly:

 

Aahh..now that's a proper edge prep!