dissassembling rudder

[thomashoebus]

I'm going to disassemblethe the rudder of my oceanis 440.
Since i have never done this are there things to pay special attention to? Is there someone who has an explosion diagram. Do i need special tools to get the rudder of the boat? Beside a shovel to make a pit.

I need to make a repair on the rudder itself and on the same time change the rubber and bearing of the propeller shaft.

Thank you for any advice

Thomas

 

[boatmike]

Not clear what you mean by disassembling it... do you just mean taking it off the boat or taking it apart to its component parts? Perhaps if you were to tell us why it needs repair? What's wrong with it?

 

[thomashoebus]

Disassembling seems not the right word. I just need to take it off the boat. It needs drying out and a repair around the shaft where i presume there's a leak. When the boat is on land and the sun shines on the rudder there is sticky juice (with the vinegar smell of osmosis) oozing out some places on the rudder.
It started last year when i scraped the bottom of the boat with a paint scraper. On the rudder i slipped and took a little gellcoat away. This i repaired with epoxy buth nevertheless nearly immediately this juice came oozing out when the sun shone. Because of the build up in pressure in the rudder when warming up.

There are no bulbs or anything which looks like osmosis on the outside. So i asume there is water (not much because i drilled a few holes and no water comes out) in the rudder between the foam in the inside. This water reacts with the polyester on the inside. It's a spade rudder. I want to take away the gell coat and let the rudder dry near the boiler of the central heating in the basement during winter. Then apply epoxy and check and evenually repair the connection shaft - rudder and repair any problems in this area with 3m5200. I agree that a dry spade rudder on a 13 year old sailboat is probably less frequent than a wet one.

 

[oldsaltoz]

G'day Thomas,

A leak at the top of a rudder at the shaft (stock) to rudder case is common because the steel expands and contracts with temperature and stress loadings.

You need to do 2 things:

1. The internal area Must be Dry, so before you place it in a warm area you should
drill holes to provide an outlet for the moisture.

Drill at least 10mm holes not more than 50mm apart in a grid pattern over the
entire rudder face on both sides and close to the bottom edge.

When dry, fill the holes with closed cell balloons and epoxy resin and fair the
rest using the same material before coating the entire rudder with 4 coats of
epoxy resin.

Then apply some epoxy primer before antifouling.

2. To repair the leaking rudder stock to rudder case interface you will have to
grind off the top section of glass, about 25mm should do.

Then add two '0' rings with a bit of Vaseline between them to stop the resin
clean off any remaining Vaseline with Acetone and layup with some bidirectional
fibreglass cloth, use a light weight cloth so you can shape it easily. Don't rush
this, let the resin dissolve any binders and soften any stitching as you go.

After curing, wash it in fresh water under a running hose and rub with plastic
kitchen scourer till the water no longer forms beads; then sand it to shape.

You can then fair it with more closed cell balloons and finish with 4 coats of resin
and a primer as above.

I hope this helps.

Avagoodweekend......

 

[thomashoebus]

Thank you this helps a lot.

Concerning taking the rudder off i assume this is fairly simple unscrewing some bolts and let it drop?

Thomas

 

[milfordman]

A friend of mine had a crack in his lifting rudder, when he opened it up he found the interior was filled with what looked like weak concrete.

He filled it with epoxy resin and then glassed over the area. The following season the rudder snapped in half when sailing in a stiff breeze.

The rudder was replaced with one with a timber core.

As the rudder is one of the most critical components of a boat, and very hard to find a substitute if it fails out on the ocean!!

I would advise that it should be cut all around the top, bottom, leading and trailing edges, so that the two sides come apart. This will allow you to examine the means by which it is secured to the shaft, which should be substantial bars or plates securely fixed to the shaft with no corrosion

 

[TheBoatman]

Tom
The Master has spoken (Old saltz), if you do it that way you're almost guaranteed to have no further problems.

Peter.

 

[Amari]

Wouldn't it be easier and safer to buy a new rudder, despite it being ather contrary to the ethos of this forum?

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Yes, basically!

I assume you have the inverted cone rudder stock common on Oceanis?

Be warned... the rudder is heavier than you expect!!!!!