After a bit of a fight I got the castings off of the rudder with zero damage to the rudder or the 2 moulds.
All up very happy with the end result at this stage, yeah there's a couple of minor holes that I've already filled and blocked back on one of the moulds and its now ready to actually lay a new fibreglass half rudder in..... one minor issue stops me dead in my tracks tho, my glass supplier omitted to put the gel-coat fixer in the package, I guess he was under the pump a tad being xmas and all.
It will be here in a few days time so I can then make my first half cast
nervous times ahead.....
I was going to do it in carbon fibre but seeing this is my first attempt at this sort of thing I'm going to the first set in ordinary chopped mat , then do some sailing with them and see how they go before commiting to a full carbon pair



The 'dark line' you can see through the mould is actually glassed in bits of rope, this has stiffened up the mould significantly to the point where its quite difficult to get any real flex in the moulds.
The heavier sections around the rudder top are glassed in 8mmX10mm cedar offcuts from the stringers when I re-decked Shy

All up happy as.... at the halfway point anyway