Water in the rudder - now what?

[pmoyer]

I have a wet rudder (on the inside, not just the outside). There are rusty stains coming out of cracks about 4" up from the bottom edge. I've pulled the rudder and it's sitting at my house. I'm not sure what to do with it next. Casey recommends drilling a series of 3/16" holes through it to let it dry out, but I'm not sure if the rudder stock is damaged inside. Is drying it out "good enough," or should I take more drastic measures like splitting it, or building a new one, before epoxying, glassing, and fairing?

Cheers,
Phil

[Gary M]

If it seems solid then just drill a couple of small holes in the bottom and let it drain for a while. Then epoxy it and it should be OK.

Good Luck, worked for me once.

Gary

[Faster]

Agree that if you are able to dry it out, and reseal the drain holes and repair the crack you should be OK.

You might want to put the stock in a vise (protect it from scoring) and make sure the blade is still solid to the shaft.

[denby]

Drill holes at bottom, let it dry over the winter, seal it up and your good to go . Did the same thing last winter and had no problems.

[sailingdog]

Phil-

The question is whether the internal stainless steel stock and webbing is still in good shape? If the water has caused the stainless steel to corrode and weakened it, letting it dry out isn't going to leave you with a safe to use rudder.

Splitting it is the only way you'll be able to inspect the stock and webbing.

Originally Posted by pmoyer

I have a wet rudder (on the inside, not just the outside). There are rusty stains coming out of cracks about 4" up from the bottom edge. I've pulled the rudder and it's sitting at my house. I'm not sure what to do with it next. Casey recommends drilling a series of 3/16" holes through it to let it dry out, but I'm not sure if the rudder stock is damaged inside. Is drying it out "good enough," or should I take more drastic measures like splitting it, or building a new one, before epoxying, glassing, and fairing?

Cheers,
Phil

[HoffaLives]

if it's never been done, i would split it. cs rudders have this problem, and ours was split and rebuilt a few years ago. rust tells you water has gotten to the ss, but you can never know the condition without having a look. prudence suggests having a look and making sure the stock or web isn't swiss cheese.

[camaraderie]

Rusty stains mean you need to split it open and do a full repair/rebuild for safety sake.

[killarney_sailor]

You don't say how old your boat is, but if it is from the 70s or 80s chances are good that that webbing in the rudder is not stainless steel but carbon steel. This was the practice followed by reputable builders of the time like C&C, Tartan and Hinterhoeller and, I assume many others. I guess they thought that water could never get that far into the rudder to cause a problem. I split and rebuilt the rudder on my Niagara 35 because of rusty water coming out around the rudder shaft each winter. I tried the drying hole approach a couple of years and it did not really help.

I carefully split the rudder into two halves and removed the filler to get at the shaft and web. Had a machine shop add a stainless web to the shaft and then put the two halves together and joined the edges with wide fibreglas tape. I used WEST epoxy and aluminum filler to seal the rudder and put 5200 around the shaft to try to keep water out in future - likely to need replacement from time to time as the shaft and rudder have different expansion rates.

[pmoyer]

Excellent advice everyone! Thank you. Sailingdog, you answered the question of split or not, and how to tell the next step. I appreciate it. I'll take in in my basement, dry it out with the hole method for a couple of weeks, and then split it apart. It's a thin fiberglass shell over foam, so even if I put new webbing on it, I should be able to fit it back into the shell without any troubles.

Thanks again! I'll send some pictures along when I get the project under way.

Cheers,
Phil

[k1vsk]

It's irrelevant whether the webbing is stainless - the welds are the weak point and subject to rust failure. The only way to ensure it is structurally sound is to split it and inspect/repair. The rust colored water is usually a show-stopper indication of weld failure.