The rudder post stuffing gland had been leaking a constant stream since I bought the boat, so it was time to replace the packing in the gland. Upon closer inspection i found that the top part of the ram had been glassed in with the original grp used when the boat was made. This made the packing in the gland about 26 years old, no wonder it was dribbling to much.

Lifting the ram out of the rudder post gland	getting the ram out of the way to allow access to the old stuffing/packing	this is the stuffing that came out	this is what went back in (10mm PTFE)	new stuffing in gland

It took a few gentle taps with the hammer to release the ram, but in the end it all went swimmingly well.