Westerly Storm Rudder

flyingscampi

flyingscampi

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I took the rudder off my Storm to remove the prop shaft a few months ago and it has been standing upside down in my porch ever since.

It is leaking a dark brown fluid (seawater based) which was a steady drip to begin with but now seems to drip once every few days. The drip pan has a nice brown goo in the bottom.

Should I worry about this and drill holes somewhere to drain it properly? Anybody know what's inside?

I was going to paint the rudder with some epoxy and Coppercoat it so I suppose I should sort it out now.
 
Very common problem I am afraid. Many rudders have a stainless steel framework welded to the stock with GRP skins only and the interior fillled with foam. Water gets in and degrades the foam which is what the brown sludge is. Many people effect a repair by drilling holes on one skin and injecting more foam. IMHO this is a bodge that can only give a temporary fix. I have repaired about 6 rudders for people by angle grinding through the skins on the centre line joint, taking the two halves apart and digging out the old foam. Then, if not already done, I attach the frame to one skin by GRP bonding (after inspecting all welds) and putting both halves back together. When doing this I always carefully remove the gel coat for about 1" around the join and overbond with glass tape. Then inject with syntactic foam and give the whole rudder about 6 coats of epoxy laying it on especially thickly where the stock enters as this is where most leaks develop. Never had one fail again so far!
 
Talk to the Westerly Owners Association, I'm pretty sure this is not an unknown problem. The rudder on our Storm did the same thing when we took it off about three years ago and I think it indicates some corrosion of the steel (stainless?) webbing between the GRP halves of the rudder itself. Ours had a small split at the top where the water was getting in, which I filled after the rudder had dried out and stopped dripping. It did not drip as long as yours. I guess the only way to find out what's really going on in there is to split the rudder moulding, but see what the WOA says. I'm sure Philip Stevens will be on your case at some point.
 
My boat was out of water for a couple of years and the rudder was still dripping brown goo occasionally after all that time, so I did exactly as Boatmike said, split down centreline of rudder (after using angle grinder around the edge), removed all the soaking crumbly brown foam, allowed it all to dry then used epoxy/fibreglass tape to glue stainless stock back onto one side and then rather than using any foam to refill voids, I made up epoxy and filler and glued 2 halves together.

I reckoned that it may weigh a little more initially, but by the time water had seeped in again (as I thought it was bound to do) weight difference would be minimal.

When I put 2 halves together, I drilled a few holes in the top half so that excess epoxy flowed out - just to make sure it was full of epoxy, these were filled a couple of days later. I also ground out the edges (so I had a vee) and used epoxy and tape in there, cleaned it all up and then a couple of coats of epoxy paint. It hasn't fallen off yet!

Most surprising thing to me was how wet it was inside rudder after boat being out of the water for 2 years despite having several 6mm drain holes drilled in lower edge.
 
Thanks for the links Phillip

I've always found the forum to be dead and the Yahoo discussion groups are unbearable imo "Search server is busy (code=300)" every time.

Why do the majority of WOA members use crappy Yahoo groups instead of the forum? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
Thnaks Pete (and Boatmike), looks like a job for next winter. Can I ask you what size of grinding disc you used to cut around the rudder and how deep you have to cut?
 
[ QUOTE ]
Why do the majority of WOA members use crappy Yahoo groups instead of the forum?


[/ QUOTE ]

That is the question a few of us keep asking. The forum is slowly gaining use and members.

I have to look at both as I am moderator/administrator for both /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
I've only got a 4 inch grinder and I used that to its full depth (a 6inch grinder would make job marginally easier), then a bolster chisel to gently lever the 2 pieces apart. It cracks and sounds awful when you are levering apart, but it's only fibreglass so you can always repair any damage if necessary.

Forgot to mention, I clamped two sides together after adding epoxy, just to eliminate any danger of it springing apart part way through curing process.
 
G'day Flyingscampi,

Before you start cutting try to establish what side of the rudder is fixed to outer cover, try tapping with a large coin, one side will sound more solid.

If you have problems getting the two halves apart you can cut the small panel out that is glassed to the rudder tangs.

Cutting the centreline is done with an angle grinder and tile cutting disc, very thin.

You may have to re glass the rudder tangs to one side of the outer layer, you can get a good bond to the other side using resin and micro fibres placed on the tangs high enough to make contact with the other half when placed.

You can prevent leaks at the top of the rudder stock by grinding away the glass and inserting 2 or 3 "0" rings with a little Vaseline under them, push them together and clean off any surplus with a solvent like acetone. Then glass them in. The fibreglass will bond to the clean rubber leaving the 'O' ring to seal onto the shaft.

When joining the two halves together, do not try to get the cloth to bend around the trailing edge, just run it past into a bit of plastic, then do the same (without the plastic) on the other side, you can then shape the remaining edge.

Hope this helps.

Avagoodweekend......
 
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