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

[Rachel]

Heh, I JUST did this on Sunday night.  Your rudder sounds very similar 
to mine.  I had the luck to find an older post by a fellow who had 
uncovered some of the same before I started, so I kind of knew what I 
was looking for.

The "problem" on mine just showed up as a little bulge on one side, 
with a tiny crack.  As it turned out, this was over the strip of wood, 
which had of course swelled a bit over time.

On Sunday a friend and I ground everything off down to bare glass, so 
I'm now familiar with it :)  Mine sounds JUSt like yours.

 From what I can tell, by what I've found in mine, what I've read, and 
the rudder-frame drawings that are on the Alberg website, here's what 
we have:

1) A "skeleton" of brass, which consists of the rudder post itself, 
with (IIRC the number correctly) five brass rod "fingers" sun-raying 
out from it.  These are threaded on the after end, with stainless nuts 
on them.  The "groove" for the nuts was molded in at the factory, and 
then filled with a wooden (mahogany) strip.  I think the strip is just 
a mold/filler piece, and not structural.  You can see the outline of 
the woodgrain in the gelcoat, indicating that the wood was used to form 
the groove as well as to fill it later.

2) Some additional flat brass "straps" that are nearer the surface of 
the rudder.  These again run like "rays" and go further down towards 
the shoe than the "fingers." I have not ground down enough to tell if 
these are attached to the post or not.  It seems like they would be, 
but another lister reported that they weren't.

3) There was softish filler around the straps and in the groove around 
the nuts.  Grey, like the Thiokol used around the inside of the stern 
tube, but in texture a cross between the rubbery Thiokol and clay.

4) There was a layer of really tough white gelcoat.

5) There was quite a bit of grey, fairing bondoish stuff.

6) Then there was what looked like a "patch" of glass cloth wrapping 
around the front of the rudder just below the prop aperture.  Like you 
said, it looked like this had been done over red bottom paint.  
However, this mystified me, because my PO kept meticulous records of 
all that was done, and there was no mention of this.  Also, there was 
the "red paint" in some of the grooves where the straps were.  This 
makes me think it was some kind of fairing or something, and maybe the 
"patch" was actually done by Whitby.  Be interesting to see if yours 
and mine match.  The "patch" covers over the forward places where the 
lower fingers attach on the post.  The uppermost two finger attachment 
points are visible and not covered over (above the prop aperture).

My rudder was basically dry inside, and (luckily, since I think this 
should really be bronze) the brass all looks brand new.  Just the 
uppermost nut was the tiniest bit damp.

I've already cleaned out all the wood and "clay" from the flat groove.  
My plan, since everything looks sound - although a bit strange - is to 
make sure the "finger" nuts are snug, then fill in around them with 
thickened epoxy.  After that I will fill the groove where the wood used 
to be with a fitted strip of pre-made fiberglass board (like from 
McMaster Carr) (then the inevitable gaps with thickened epoxy).  Then, 
I'll wrap the top of the rudder in glass.  Nothing super thick. Then of 
course, fair, paint, etc.

I'll probably also fill those two uppermost "finger end" divots on the 
rudder post before I glass, since it looks like a small amount of water 
got in there at one point.

On the lower half, I only plan to glass a couple of areas where the 
brass straps are very close to the surface.  For the most part, things 
look good.

I thought about making the bolt heads accessible (holes there in the 
fiberglass board strips, then putty, for example), but I don't think 
I'll do that.  At this point I figure it's all 40 years old and it 
still looks good, so by the time it needs another refit, it'll be time 
for a new rudder for some reason - catastrophe, etc.  I may still do 
that though, as I can't not make things accessible for future work - it 
just goes against my nature.

Of course I have ten-thousand photos of all this, if you'd like to 
exchange some. I agree there are no photos on the site that look like 
our rudders.

Hope this helps -- funny that we're both doing this at just the same 
time!    Did I miss what number your hull is?

Rachel
#221