Rudder sounds like a rainmaker

[sur4]

I purchased a 1988 26D about a week ago that needs a bit of work. The Rudder sounds like a rain maker a has some cracks in it and I can see where it looks like the wood rotted away. I was thinking I could do the following. Pour wood hardener into the cavity, inject low expansion foam, sand, patch, paint. Any other ideas? Whats the hole at the bottom for?

[sur4]

So I poured a can of wood hardener in the rudder and used some low expansion foam. Looks like it worked. I'll lay up a layer of 4oz cloth and give it a hot coat.

[svscott]

So I poured a can of wood hardener in the rudder and used some low expansion foam. Looks like it worked. I'll lay up a layer of 4oz cloth and give it a hot coat.

The stock rudder is hollow with holes at top and bottom to allow it to flood so it sinks.
If the foam you used us buoyant, you will need to rig up a system to pull the rudder all the way down and keep it there.
Chances are the rattling in your rudder was cracked and crumbled epoxy.

[Jimmyt]

So I poured a can of wood hardener in the rudder and used some low expansion foam. Looks like it worked. I'll lay up a layer of 4oz cloth and give it a hot coat.

Welcome to the forum.

I see that you asked this question in the morning and executed the plan in the afternoon.

It might take a day or two to get a response to a question like this in the forum. So, if you run into a situation that you don't understand, it may be beneficial to wait for a response or two before executing. Also, you could try asking in the Macgregor/Venture forum to zero in on the folks that don't own power sailers.

Sometimes responses come quickly, sometimes slower, and sometimes you may have to ask the question again. On my boat, filling the dagger board, or the rudders with foam and then fiberglassing would be an expensive mistake. Hope your boat doesn't have the same "sinking rudder" design that is purpose built to fill with water when submerged, then drain that water back out when raised. According to the above post from someone who owns a 26D, it does...

[sur4]

Guess I am buying a new rudder.

[Jimmyt]

Guess I am buying a new rudder.

Not necessarily.

Post some pics of your rudder assembly, including brackets, lines,etc. I'd be surprised if you don't have some sort of downhaul line on it. May just be a slight modification, as svscott suggested.

[svscott]

Do some searching about rudder downhaul lines before buying a new rudder from Blue Water Yachts. By routing a line from the rudder blade to a cheek block at the starboard base of your rudder post and up to a cleat close to the tiller, you can rig up a way to pull it into place, fully down. Is there a chemical you can pour in that'll dissolve the expanding foam? It's a bit of work but you could also cut your rudder in half, clean it out, and reglass it back together inexpensively.

I highly advise you redrill your rudder pivot bolt hole and the locking pin hole to bring your rudder's lower edge about 3 or 4 inches forward of the pivot plane of the pintles. The new set of holes will be close to the original location but there enough room to do it. Doing this will drastically lessen the physical exertion required on the tiller to steer the boat.

I'm in the final stages of epoxying and barrier coating an oversized solid core rudder that weighs almost 40 lbs, compared to 8 or 9 pounds stock. My aluminum rudder post is at a local weld shop getting 1/4" aluminum reinforcement plates attached to it now so my project hopefully won't end up at the bottom of Lake Erie.

[Be Free]

If you used polyurethane expanding foam you are pretty much stuck with it. I don't know of anything that will chemically dissolve it once it is set.

Downhauls are a good solution if the rudders won't stay down. Make sure you have them held in place with some quick disconnect cleats though. They need to be able to pop up if you hit something.

[svscott]

I know my rudder post has a small tab welded to the bottom to mount a block.

This isn't my picture and I actually don't use a downhaul on my boat - I use a SS quick release pin to lock the rudder down. If I'm going into unknown areas where the chat shows shallow waters, I use a popsicle stick that will break and let the rudder kick up.

[Jimmyt]

Something like this maybe...

[Be Free]

Something like this maybe...

Exactly. The only modification I'd make is to add a short section of bungie cord at the bottom of the downhaul. That will allow the rudder to lift and drop back into place when hitting something and will only pop the quick releases when it hits something really hard.

[AndyVS]

Hi sur4,

If you need a stock replacement rudder, I have one for sale. I've sent you an email.

Andy

[sur4]

I went ahead and and sanded down the rudder and reapply gel coat. Looks like I’ll be able to make it work. For the life of me I could not get the gel coat smooth on the daggerboard. I ended up sanding the gel coat and spraying it with bottomcoat. Now the dagger board rope holes look like the epoxy inside has rotted out or something. My plan was to inject west systems six10 epoxy into it then re drill the holes. My other idea was to epoxy in a nylon busing then redrill the hole from the top.

[svscott]

I'm glad you are able to make the rudder work out.

For the worn out holes, it's pretty straight forward to mix up thickened epoxy then fill and drill once it's cured. I have used 407 as a fairing filler to do this - it can be mixed pretty thick like peanut butter. I haven't used other additives but they all seem similar from what I've read.

[sur4]

Is the dagger board supposed to be filled with epoxy? It looks like there are drain holes on the bottom. My dagger board sound hollow if I tap around the middle.