I can’t speak to the broken rudder tube - I have no idea of the best way to repair/replace it. But, those “cracked” gussets have a few dead giveaways that what you are looking at is some sort of patch (a recent fibreglass rectangle that was laid in atop the original fibreglass) that covers … ???
Even the colour is slightly different. Those cracks seem to simply be the frayed edges of the fibreglass cloth when it was applied. I have a feeling that there is no structural damage in this area. Is the story the same for the starboard side ?
I would be inclined to grind back the broken area and scarf on a piece of similar fibreglass tube. With a reinforcing wrap or two of maybe biaxial cloth it should be good as new.
While you’re at it a little extra reinforcing glass wouldn’t hurt the gussets either but they don’t seem to be seriously compromised.
Sorry about your broken rudder tube and bent rudder. That is quite a mess. How much of the rudder tube is broken off? It does not look like a very big piece, I would inspect the inside of the tube for a few inches with a scope of some kind to see if the damage goes further up inside the tube. You can get an appropriate scope to plug into a smart phone for about 30 dollars. That tube is well over a foot long, and the walls on it are quite thick after the first few inches of the bottom of the tube. Looking at the picture it appears to me that the bond between the tube and the hull has been broken around the entire tube. If your rudder post is like mine, and I am pretty sure that it is, you can grind out the epoxy around the tube, clean the area with acetone and then glue the tube in place with thickened epoxy injected through a syringe. This is not a difficult task, but it is a bit scary.
The gussets will require close inspection as there is a great deal of force at play in this section of the hull. Use the camera once again to carefully inspect the tube to gusset joints on all of the gussets, as well as the gusset to hull joints. You may find damage on all of these joints, but the repair is not difficult, just time consuming. Grind away the glass around the damaged joint and replace with an appropriate layup of glass and resin. Don’t cheap out on the resin, use good resin and follow the manufacturers recommendations.
Wear a respirator and suit when grinding, and if possible run a vacuum at the same time.
I performed a similar repair two seasons ago. The yard quoted me $5000 for the repair due to the labor involved. I turned it into a DIY project that took about 30 hours over 3 weeks. I spent about $200 on materials and $500 on tools. I still have some glass leftover from the job and I use the oscillating saw on a regular basis. The technicians at the yard supported my efforts by checking on my work periodically so are now on a first name basis.
Feel free to contact me if you would like to have a discussion.
Randy Gadikian
Paisley Moon
NS26C #37
Buffalo, New York
Oops, thanks Randy. I didn’t realize the broken tube pic was outside when I made my comment. Being up inside the hull makes it trickier
.
Paul M
NS30U #211, Sandpiper
Cowichan Bay, B.C.
There is a good deal of material in the hull surrounding the rudder post so your idea does have some merit. The bearing surface of the tube is huge though and I am wondering if the last few inches of the tube matter all that much given that the tube is much thinner in that area than it is say 3 inches inside the hull. Don’t ask me how I know this is the case. Not being a mechanical or marine engineer I am not in a good position to say how important the last couple of inches of the tube are to the integrity of the rudder system.
I think I’d still try to patch in a piece if I could. The difference being that it would be reinforced by the epoxy surrounding it rather than by wrapping cloth as I suggested thinking it was the top end. It could be built up in place with epoxy/glass and reshaped with a sanding drum too.
Thanks all for the sympathy and helpful suggestions, which we shared with
with the shipyard.
While Breezing Up is on stands, we’ve had the bottom painted and installed
new water tanks. We’ll also have the original 34mm thru-hulls for speed and depth
enlarged to 51mm to install new transducers and instruments.
How many others have done this?
Since the Stowe sounder died several years ago, we’ve been getting depth from
an Airmar P79 in hull transducer plugged into our ancient Garmin 5" chartplotter,
which also provides speed over ground via GPS.
Bill Howze
Breezing Up 1988 30 Ultra shallow draft #472
Seabrook, TX
Sailing on Galveston Bay and the Texas coast
Not being a mechanical or marine engineer I am not in a good position to say how important the last couple of inches of the tube are to the integrity of the rudder system.