Rudder repair

[Troppo]

Fine weather and a slip cancellation by another boat so I took the opportunity to get Windchaser up on the dry to give her an antifoul. Rained on the day of haul out and my planned two days has stretched into four with no end in sight. However, with waiting for fine weather so I can paint, it did mean I checked out Windchaser more thoroughly than I would have.

The thin crack along the rudder shaft started to look like a problem when I broke off some of the covering fibreglass. After getting feedback from experts on this forum, I decided I needed to do a repair.

With a chisel I trimmed back more of the fibreglass along the crack. Hmm, not good. Too difficult to do insitu. Rudder needed to come off.

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I had lost some sleep last night thinking the rudder might need to come off and it may need to be done in the water to get enough depth. The river here is very muddy. And has crocs. I neither wanted to be up to my neck in water with no visibility and squelchy bottom nor be floundering around in a croc's swimming pool.

Luckily, there was enough room underneath for the rudder to be dropped down. After shoring up the rudder with some timber, I removed the tiller in the cockpit (easy, undo one bolt and lift off) and found nuts under the layers of paint on the rudder shoe thing. These nuts came off easily, look like copper.


The threaded copper rods came out easily, only needed light taps and then pull them out. Some of them look bent so I am thinking the holes are not straight and could be a pain to put back.

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The keel where the shoe bolted on does not look so good. Look at the bolt holes. There were a couple of thin oysters hanging on.

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I was concerned the rudder would be too heavy but someone said on this forum that the weight is okay so I moved my supporting planks and lowered the rudder down.

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After a rush of happiness at getting this far and not had to go swimming or swear in frustration, I cut back some more of the fibreglass then ran a grinder along the edges.

There is a crack running from top to bottom of the tubing and along the bottom. I am seeing a lot of black wood though it seems strong enough, only a small section is a bit soft. I guess there is a fair bit of water absorbed in there.

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The good news is that the rudder is still solid. Before taking it off, I had the tiller tied up and I could not move the rudder so the post is not moving in the fibreglass. Don't know why the cracks have happened but it does not appear to be from movement of the post in the rudder. The sea life under the cracked fibreglass in some places indicates to me that the crack had been there for some time.

Now I will dry out the rudder and see about 'glassing it back up.

[Phillip]

Troppo Mate,

You have some work to do. That photo showing where the rudder shoe fits means your rudder is being supported by ONE bolt! No wonder it was bent!

You need to fibreglass that so there is more support. Oysters do not and will not support your rudder.

[bearmcnally]

Hi Troppo

My guess looking at that ? I would say ,water = rust + swollen wood = splitting of glass along leading edge of the rudder ? I guess there is some grinding and re-glassing about to happen. If it's any help, make sure the rudder and the timber is properly dried out or you'll have the same problem again as nothing will bond to anything containing moisture. I would also epoxy treat the rudder stock .

I got told by a structural engineer many years ago ? "Everything is fixable "

cheers Bear

[Troppo]

Okay, thank you for the feedback, I'll build up that bottom section but I'll also grind back the sides of where the shoe fits on the keel and run glass fibre down and under the bottom and back up the other side. That should give some structural support rather than just bog up the bottom area and hope it holds on.

I'm a thinking the same as u, Bear, since the split along the bottom follows the ply wood and the split up the shaft was gunked with rusty rubbish. Water entry causing swelling and so splitting.

I left the rudder at the slipway today but am thinking of (a) grinding the edges back a lot more so I get more of the ply exposed and (b) bringing it home and sitting it in front of a heater to help dry it out, seeing as it is still raining (and every day is more to pay for the slip).


For the wood in the rudder, I have already ordered some TPRDA from Boatcraft to go in some epoxy. It helps reduce rot in wood and makes epoxy runny. It is not a solvent and does not evaporate out of the mix, so it helps the epoxy soak in and set hard. Hopefully it will keep water out. I don't expect it to soak in very far but even a little extra protection is better I reckon.

[bearmcnally]

Yeah Troppo your on the right track ? You have to stop the rot and that is the way to go . I think you should grind back the rudder at least 150mm plus back, and then start to build up with 60mm stripes working up to 80mm,100 mm and then over lap with 150mm strips wrapping around the whole rudder . then I would fill with a epoxy filler .
Anyway I,m sure you know what you are doing !

cheers Bear

[Troppo]

. . . Anyway I,m sure you know what you are doing !

cheers Bear

Hmmm, sounds like ya don't know me, Bear. I have a vague idea but advice such as yours is mucho welcomed.

[Tales]

I have discussed this job before with boat builders and the answer was always to split the rudder and see just what you have left.

Repair is possible or you could buy new mouldings if necessary from Brett Diessel (0402 442 043) who still has the Top Hat moulds as far as I know.

This book is a free download for fibreglass repair.

http://www.westsystem.com.au/files/prod ... enance.pdf

Cheers,

Tom

[Troppo]

Today I attacked the rudder with the angle grinder. While I knew the bottom edge and that along the rod had cracked, as I ground away, I noticed that there had been new fibreglass run along the back edge and, surprise, surprise, through the clearish epoxy I could see that this edge looked like the other edges with a black layer of ply. Made me think the back edge had cracked some time back and was covered over with new fibreglass but water was still getting in so the other edges cracked.

As I stripped off the fibreglass/epxoxy from the back edge I could see moisture seeping out. Same with the other edges.

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Now that I can see much more of the rudder stock, I think it is in reasonable good condition given that water had been getting in. In one corner the ply has delaminated very slightly but overall when feels solid

My fix-it plan is influenced by the fact that with Windchaser out of the water, $35 a day is slipping from my wallet so I want to get her back into the water ASAP. Already my 2 or 3 days has stretched to 6 and I have not even done the anti-foul yet. Today was dryish so nxt few days I should be able to paint (if I can get anti-foul paint as the local store I went to has sold out.).

So, I want to dry the rudder out as much as possible. Then I will seal the exposed wood especially the edges and double especially the edge against the steel rod. That edge I think is the key problem as anywhere the rod is touching the unprotected wood is a possible entry point for water. Nxt comes re-fibreglassing.

If I had more time, it may be worth splitting the wood apart to see what is going on, as Tom suggested. However, not only do I doubt my skill to put it back together again but I am thinking it will take too long. Windchaser will be coming out again in a year so I'll make sure I check that rudder carefully.

[Troppo]

I have discussed this job before with boat builders and the answer was always to split the rudder and see just what you have left.

Repair is possible or you could buy new mouldings if necessary from Brett Diessel (0402 442 043) who still has the Top Hat moulds as far as I know.

This book is a free download for fibreglass repair.

http://www.westsystem.com.au/files/prod ... enance.pdf

Cheers,

Tom

Thank you Tom, I'll have a read.

[Troppo]

More work has been done on the rudder.

The ss rudder shaft and wood touching the shaft show signs of water even though they were covered with fibreglass. That was the problem I reckon, water seepage.

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To seal the wood end grain, I need to be able to get to the end grain. Oh crickey, I guess I need to get out the chisel and angle grinder!

I found a sharp chisel the best tool to cut back the edge of the wood along the shaft. Sharpened it up a few times along the way. Ended up cutting back the ply far enough so that I can easily get sandpaper in between the ply and the shaft. Honestly, I found it very daunting attacking the rudder but I kept thinking if I don't seal the wood I may as well not even bother trying to do a repair. Discovered there were three flanges on the shaft which the ply is attached to. After finding the first flange I needed to put the chisel across the wetstone to get its edge back.

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I cut back along the flanges a little to check out what the surface was like. One flange was perfectly clean. The other two started to look cleaner away from the shaft. I reckon they don't need any attention except the exposed metal on the dirty ones will get a polish same as the shaft.

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Of course it is raining today seeing as I have to do painting and stuff. Working on the rudder under the house, which is open underneath, I noticed the rudder stock felt damp in places. It occurred to me that since it had salt water in it then there was probably still salt there absorbing moisture from the air. Aghgh, rinsing it would be a good idea otherwise it will just get locked in when I seal it. And then there is the dark water stained ply under the surface resin. While the ply seems solid enough, if I am going to rinse the wood then probably better if I do those surfaces too. Yippeee, out came the grinder.

I have now stripped back the coating over the dark patches of ply, leaving the resin on where it was normal wood colour. The rudder is out in the rain getting rinsed with pure fresh rainwater. It means I will have to dry it out but I have resigned myself it is gunna take a while.