[Public-List] Rudder Repairs (yes, another thread, possibly another ruder variation)

[laserandy at aol.com]

So, we hauled the boat Monday to have the bottom painted by the new Hinckley (nee Whitehall) Marina and lo and behold, when we went down to check out the boat that evening there was a strip of exposed wood on the rudder.? (Before I get into the rudder, just want to mention Hinckley is having a great special on bottom painting this summer, price is too good to pass up if you need the work done, I'm the third of the racing Albergs there this summer, but I digress).

I figured it was just a case of grinding back to solid glass/wood on either side of the exposed part, filling and re-glassing, but the yard folks looked at it in daylight this morning and said the problems were more significant and that there was glass/fairing on top of ablative paint.? They suggested removing the rudder and re-glassing the entire thing.? So, Ann and I went down this evening, and wearing business casual attire and leather shoes proceeded to remove a few pounds of glass, bondo and other mysterious substances from both sides of the rudder.? We weren't sure what we were going to find, but ultimately, it appears we've uncovered the original glass rudder under all the gunk.

I looked at the rudder photos on the website, I see old wood rudders and new solid glass rudders, but nothing that looks like this one.? Ours appears to be a glass rudder molded in halves like the new ones, but the straps coming off the rudder post run down the outside of the glass (recessed) and fairing compound is filled in over the top of the straps (sort of like the wood ones).? The lower section of the post is encased inside the rudder and terminates in the keyhole, the top section of the post is external? along the leading edge with straps running back the stock and picks up mid-keyhole and then up through the hull.? Where it gets interesting is that there is a channel cut out of the port side of the rudder (see photo when it is available), the bottom section of which is filled with what appears to be a 1" wide piece of mahogany, the top parts appear to be filled with Bondo or some other filler.

I suppose my questions are whether anyone has worked on one of these before, whether the wood serves any purpose other than filling a gap, and whether I'm fine drying it out, digging out all the Bondo, filling it with epoxy fairing compound, using the compound to fair the top section of the rudder post into the rudderstock, and then barrier coating the whole thing with west system before they re-coat the bottom?? Everything appears solid after removing all the junk that was slapped on it, but I'd like a reality check.? The yard recommendation, before we stripped most of the stuff off, was to remove the rudder and glass over the whole thing.







I sent a few photos to George to see if he can post them.

If anyone wants to see the boat, let me know, I'm interested in any suggestions.? J Bergquist looked at it this evening also.? He, like I, had lots of thoughts on the 'repairs' that had been done, but no definitive suggestion on how to deal with it in order to get the boat re-launched.

All suggestions welcomed.

Andrew