Broken rudder – please help.

image no worky.

It was there earlier when he posted. Must be a temporary Flickr thing.

fixed.

I've fixed that on my A class rudders by cutting a slot in the rudders from the top and inserting a length of shaped flat stainless steel with plenty of big holes in it where it is embedded in the rudder, that way when you glass it in the resin goes between the holes and firmly grips it. I used vinylester to glass in then used a thickened mixture to make the outside bit the right space. To do that after the vinylester has gone off (about 20 mins), tape plastic to the board, lay the board on a bench with a slight angle down to the repair, mask off the repair, bunch the plastic up to a bit more than the right height using tape, pour in your thickened vinylester. If you want to use it tomorrow leave your repair in the sun to go off, you will be able to wet and dry to shape in about an hour. For some reason sunshine guarantees the mixture going off and it's not just the heat. Make sure you have the exact size drill bit for your rudder arm hole as the stainless will give you a non slop hole.

I have a single Gen. one rudder already carbon reinforced in that area, I'd sell. The problem comes from steering with your rudders up,like surf launches or flats runs.

I was coming back to the shore after 3 hours of sailing in 15 to 18 knots of wind (what a blast specially spinnaker runs) I had one rudder up and other one was already released. Waves were up to 4 ft. and then it happened I lost control of my cat both boards broke – I guess due to the fight with waves.

There is alot of load on those when they are pointing straight back. It's like swinging a door through the water.

I also have a repaired first gen rudder I could sell.

Some brief repair info:
http://www.teamseacats.com/2006/02/13/rudder-system-under-attack/
http://www.teamseacats.com/2006/02/19/suction-please/

And a picture story starts here that gives you a couple of different ways to repair. These repairs held up for years with no failure.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamseacats/99487688/in/photostream/

Jake,

How important is to use vacuum for final fiberglass coat? I’m planning to build up missing part of rudder board with west system epoxy and microfibers filler. Maybe I will use piece of ss rod to make it stronger. Then final coat I’ll apply 2 coats of fiber glass.
Kris

It's not important. It's a little more convenient because it leaves less clean-up to do with a sander. If you follow the image link, you can see a few shots of one I fixed by using electrical tape to compress the glass and resin. After wrapping with electrical tape, I put a piece of poly plastic around the rudder and clamped two pieces of plywood on the large flat areas to get some compression there because the tape won't press very hard on the flat section.

The key is to insert a piece of plastic (or one of the scrap plastic bushings) in the hole in the rudder so it doesn't fill up with resin and you can locate the hole later. I used opaque white delrin so I could shine a light through the rudder and still see the hole...but the black plastic bushing should also be visible through the repair. This should help you reshape the missing piece.

I would sand back the remaining ends on the rudder to expose the surface of the rudder core so you know where your core roughly needs to be. Put in the bushing and shape up your new core with thickened resin and shape it to match the old core. Make sure the old glass to old core has some gradual taper to it and the start glassing...you can't have too much glass there. Be sure to spread the repair out at least 2 inches in all directions from the break. You will then need to make sure the thickness of the rudder will work in the casting - but there is a lot of room to build up the corner of the rudder without interfering with anything.

I also have a brand new pair of gen.1 rudders ,never used but I think they have been spoken for. If not and you're interested let me know.

Edit: They're sold.

Too bad they are sold. If for any reason you still have them I’m interested.

Thx everyone for your input.

Kris

Still have the one with the carbon reinforcing though.

Check your PM