Broken Rudder, Repair advice please..

[Mac26Mpaul]

Seems every time I go out of late, I come back with something to fix worth several hundreds of dollars. The missus is sick of it So anyway, I broke my rudder and I'm determined to fix it (since they are about 285 bucks here) See the video below:
http://youtu.be/ele_X89tmJg
So I was thinking, grind out the cracks so I can see where I'm at, and then probably grind and sand about half the thickness of the rudder away from the damaged side, down a few inches below the major crack. Then build it up layer by layer, grind, sand, and finish with flowcoat.

Have only done fibreglass patches on dinghys etc before and this is a little more complicated so thought I'd thow it out there first.

So brains trust, does this sound like a decent plan of atack? And also, does it matter which resin I use?

Cheers,
Paul.
ps. I have seen it said that, as a sailing boat, the rudders are the weakest point of the Mac. Well that "may" be true, but all I can say is, reversing into that sandbank yesterday would probably have turned out considerably worse (and expensive) for any other 26 foot sailboat Thanks Roger

[2BonC]

Hi Paul,
sorry for Your problem . But I would try to save the rudder as well. I´ve done some glasfibre work at the rudder of my , but the damage was not that severe. I´m not a GFC-specialist but in Your case I would do the following.
Put in some placeholder for the pinholes but don't forget to put a separator on the surface of them. Bend the broken part to the rear to widen the gap. Fill in some GFC-paste into this gap. Press the rudder in the original position and try to lock it there. Give it time to harden that way.
Than to stabilize the rudder I would drill in two holes of about 10mm as shown here.

Put pins, or bolts covered with GFC-paste into this holes. Again give it time to harden.
Then continue as You have described it.
Good luck Rainer

[Mac26Mpaul]

Great thanks Rainer, Pins or bolts, didnt think of that
Yes, I should be able to get away with quite a bit less grinding, glassing and shaping than I was planning on too,
sounds like a good approach,
cheers

[Ixneigh]

Just my 2 cents.

Make a template of the rudder head. Grind the glass away about 8 inches down from the break on both sides.
Leave about 1/2 in. Center thickness. Gradually taper the grinding into the rest of the blade. Build up with fiberglass biaxial cloth and then wrap the rudder head with lots of thinner fiberglass tape up over and back down.
Clean up the glass with a smaller grinder fair it with putty and gelcoat.
It's cheaper to buy a new one. That break will be hard to fix correctly.
I have one extra that has a hairline crack but the shipping is probably prohibitive.
If you are not in a rush yours is fixable.

Ixneigh

[kmclemore]

The pin idea is a good one, but one strong caution - do NOT use anything that will corrode. The rudders do get saturated with water and if you use something like iron rod it will rust, expand and eventually ruin all the work you've done. Use brass or rust-proof stainless. Aluminium is another possibility, but that, too, eventually corrodes somewhat.

[Gazmn]

So sorry Mpaul.

Try the fiberglass ideas, certainly. But when I did something ruining one of my rudders, I bit the bullet and bought the Ida Rudders


Hate to recommend spending more money. But BOAT does stand for : Break out another thousand...

The Ida Rudders don't crack as they're not made of fiberglass. Try as I might I have yet to damage mine - so I don't think there'd be a repeat result from whatever incident caused the damage in the first place.
I keep my reglassed ones for backup, mods & sentimentality

Fool me once, shame on you...

[mastreb]

It shouldn't be that expensive to have a CNC shop cut you two pieces of Delrin (generic: Acetal) that will match the shape of your unbroken rudder. The IDA rudders are made of Delrin--solid plastic that shapes like wood and is inexpensive.

I'd talk to local woodshops about this before I did the repair work. Buying online including shipping gets a 24x24" acetal sheet in white for under $200 that you could cut both rudders out of. I'm not exactly sure what the rudder length is, but it wouldn't be much more than that for materials. You could cut them yourself with typical shop tools if you felt you had the requisite skills.

[Ixneigh]

I've got the idarudders and am really glad I did. They have squared off ends and a slightly better foil.
I guess they might be more durable but that plastic will bend or break eventually.

Ixneigh

[DaveB]

That rudder should have never been on a sailboat, the cracks and way you just cracked away material will tell you this is no rudder to repair. I do Fiberglassing every day on a Waterpark . Many years doing restructure on fiberglass including my own Mac.X
The Pictures and Vidio clearly shows a very poor structure of a rudder .
The whole area around the pivit point is distroyed beyond repair as it has no base and holow inside.
Dave

Seems every time I go out of late, I come back with something to fix worth several hundreds of dollars. The missus is sick of it So anyway, I broke my rudder and I'm determined to fix it (since they are about 285 bucks here) See the video below:
http://youtu.be/ele_X89tmJg
So I was thinking, grind out the cracks so I can see where I'm at, and then probably grind and sand about half the thickness of the rudder away from the damaged side, down a few inches below the major crack. Then build it up layer by layer, grind, sand, and finish with flowcoat.

Have only done fibreglass patches on dinghys etc before and this is a little more complicated so thought I'd thow it out there first.

So brains trust, does this sound like a decent plan of atack? And also, does it matter which resin I use?

Cheers,
Paul.
ps. I have seen it said that, as a sailing boat, the rudders are the weakest point of the Mac. Well that "may" be true, but all I can say is, reversing into that sandbank yesterday would probably have turned out considerably worse (and expensive) for any other 26 foot sailboat Thanks Roger

[Mac26Mpaul]

Dave, you are probably right but nethertheless, I'm giving it a go... After spending $660 getting the motor fixed last week, the missus commented, "maybe we should sell the boat!" So I reckon I'll attempt a fix, even if turns out only temporary

Using a combination of the ideas suggested. I'v ground out the crack and put a heap of filler in it and then clamped it together to bring it back straight.

Once this is dry, I will epoxy in a couple of bolts, and then grind away some of each side and rebuild it up with probably several layers of glass.
Will let you know how it all works out

As to the stainless bolts - Huge hassle to go get em, is this really nesessary? I mean, firstly, the bolts will be incased in glass and should not see water, and secondly, there will be no air for rust to grow in there. Am I right or wrong here?

[zoneboy]

Out of curiosity, could you just hack away at a plank of wood and form it to the same shape slap some white marine paint on it and use that?

[seahouse]

Hi Paul –

Several workable solutions for repair come to mind. But I have no idea what tools, materials, skills, time etc you have available.

The cheapest, easiest, (quick and dirty) requiring no special tools is to just cut it off at the end of the broken open hole (or to wherever the material is most solid) in a radius matching the one there. Rasp the end to shape and then seal it. Then redrill your two 3/8” holes in the more solid material.

Re-install.

Voila –you’re sailing again. Shorter rudder = less drag = faster boat ; ).

- Brian.

[Québec 1]

You only really need one rudder!

[vizwhiz]

As to the stainless bolts - Huge hassle to go get em, is this really nesessary? I mean, firstly, the bolts will be incased in glass and should not see water, and secondly, there will be no air for rust to grow in there. Am I right or wrong here?

it will probably work fine for a short-term (can't say how long) solution...there will always be a hint of moisture, as you're not baking the thing out to dry it, and so there's always the possibility of rust starting...but I don't think we're talking near-term, more like "after my wife forgot what happened"

[Mac26Mpaul]

Thanks for comments and ideas,

I have just taken the bracket off and straightened it as best as I can get it. I have added more filler to the rudder. Tomorrow I will take the clamps off and go buy some thin stainless bolts and drill some holes and epoxy them in. Then I will commence grinding away some of the rudder to add some layers of glass. Considering how they are made, it may even end up a bit stronger than the port side one


The rudder seems to be just made of resin with no glass cloth,,, I wonder if the dagger board is the same,,, Am I right in thinking Roger has done it this way so they snap easier?