Nope the -via parameter on the vncviewer command assumes standard port number! so it is the equivalent to ssh without "-p <port>" command.
Editing the ssh_config helped.... wasn't 100% of the solution though. From there I had to edit the xorg.conf on the remote machine. I added vnc to the Modules section, and to Screen I added the VNC authorization stuff - all well documented on the RealVNC webpages (under the section on how to remote control your Unix machine by VNC). Then I restarted X on the remote machine. I started vncserver on the remote machine (and noted which :<number> it selected. Then on the local machine I used vncviewer -via <ip> 127.0.0.1:<number> This asked me for my ssh password, and then my vnc password. It immediately connected to my existing X session and I have full remote desktop control. :-) Life is good. Now to duplicate that on my other machines I'd like to remotely control. Thanks for the tips and help. it got me a long way down the right path to getting this working BTW, network load is about 25kb/s when vnc is sitting idle. C.