Rudder Repair

[cracksman]

Last year I bent my stainless steel rudder bar and opened up some of the fibre glass on the skeg for the rudder on my Leisure 17.

I am planning on taking the whole thing off, getting it straightend and putting it back together.

Any tips?

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[sailorman]

yes ,
pls add to your Bio.

1/ grind out the damaged area to the rudder , make a paper template of the largest ( ie outer perimeter otf the hole) you have made, mark de-creasing rings rather like anualar tree rings.
place this upon chopped strand matt & cut around the template, next & subsequient times cut one ring off the template. u them have made a "cone" in mat.
using epoxy glass in the smallest > largest & u end up with the hole filled without strands poking out.
fill & fair + coats of Gelshield or similar

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[oldsaltoz]

G'day Roger (Sailorman),

Standard chopped strand mat (CSM) is not a good choice when using an epoxy resin, it has too many voids and will hold up to 3 times the amount of resin than cloth designed for epoxy.

Epoxy resin and material ratio should be close to one to one resin and mat. using standard CSM will give a ratio closer to 3 resin to one mat, this will weaken the repair.

I hope this helps

Andavagoodweekend........



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[oldsaltoz]

G'day Cracksman,

Good luck with straightening your rudder stock, not an easy job and almost impossible to get it perfect.

Is the skeg cracked at the join to the hull? if it is, have you looked inside to see what, if any, damage is visible there?

Make a template to reproduce the curve when finishing, do this first.

Grind out the damaged area, look for light colouring indicating fractured fibres, make sure you grind all of this out. Feather the outer edge of the repair area to about 15 degrees.

Clean the area with Acetone, and look for any spots that are slower to dry, indicating more broken fibres, if observed, grind a little more out and wet again.

Stick some masking tape around the area to be repaired, mage sure you cover the area below the repair, some resin will run down and cleaning it later is a pain, leave the very bottom edge of the tape off the skeg so that drips will to the ground rather than run down the skeg.

Lay up using patches as described by Sailorman (I like the tree ring idea) but only use cloth / mat designed for use with epoxy resins.

When working upside-down or vertical, I find it best to pre-wet the cloth on a small sheet of glass or plastic covered board, then roll out the excess resin.

Use wide shallow mixing containers to reduce heat build up in the resin mix. I use the one litre square ice cream containers, easy to clean and cheap.

Check the lay-up for overheating after 6 to 8 patches have been applied, if it gets hot it will boil, leaving voids in the resin, this will mean grinding it all out and starting again.

When cured, epoxy resin leaves a residue on the surface, this must be removed before you apply more, or sand / grind it; cleaning the residue off is simple, just run some fresh water over the area (with a hose) and use a green plastic kitchen scourer, it takes only minutes, you will know when it's clean; the water no longer forms beads on the surface. Not cleaning off, or sanding without cleaning, is one of the causes of delamination.

When all the glassing is finished, clean as above and grind off any high spots and resin that has covered the outer edge.

Apply 3 to 4 coats of resin, wet on tacky will save you having to clean and sand between coats.

When cured, clean as above and mix some "Closed cell" balloons or 'Q' cells with resin to a toothpaste consistency and apply to fill the low spots, I drag an old straight back hand saw over repairs to give a fair finish with little sanding required, but a plastic ruler will do the same thing in a small area.

Clean as above and sand it till just low, apply another 3 or 4 coats of resin wet on tacky, when cured, clean as above and sand fair. You are now ready to apply your paint then antifouling.

I hope this helps.



Avagoodweekend........



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[cracksman]

Thanks for the advice.

I was thinking of sending the rudder stock to an engineering company to have it sraightened.

How do I get it off?

Is it as simple as undoing the top bolt and screw?

Do I have to remove the plate at the bottom?



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[oldsaltoz]

G'day Cracksman,

I'm not familiar with your rudder set up but from your brief description it sounds like a at least a two man job.

Start by supporting the rudder so that it can not drop out.

Loosen the top ready for removal,
now remove the fixing point at the bottom of the skeg,
With the rudder support still in place, remove the fixings at the top.
Take the weight of the rudder and remove the support, now let the rudder slide down and out.

Check the top of the rudder to see if the interface between shaft and rudder has any cracks that will lead to water entering the rudder. Also check the rudder bushes when the shaft has been removed, a bent stock causes the bush to wear on one side, so they may need replacing also.

Meantime.........Avagoodweekend.



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[cracksman]

Thanks.

Thats what I wanted to know. I'll have a go next week.

Chris

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