Prior to re-launch the last two springs I noticed that rusty water had wept out of a pinhole on the side of my rudder. Not wanting to risk having my rudder split during a Canadian winter I cleaned around where the shaft enters the rudder and re-sealed with special underwater silicon. I also epoxied the pin hole & made a mental note to drill a drain hole in the bottom of the rudder this fall. Two 2 1/2" holes have now been drilled from the bottom up and … no water. My plan was to insert a screw and drain the rudder each fall, like another sailor I know of. Does anyone have a drawing of a NS 30 rudder that would tell me where to drill a drain hole? The maintenance drop-down on our site didn’t tell me enough.
Herb G. Huber
MISTOFFELEES 1981 NS30C#91
Sarnia/Point Edward, Ontario
Hi Herb
You probably won’t find water close to the bottom by drilling up. The steel shaft and tab welded to the back side of the shaft are not close to the bottom. There was a series of photos in the maintenance section showing the inside of the rudder when someone else did a rebuild…
I have the same problem. 8 years ago the surveyor said the rudder had water in it. There was rusty water weeping out of the side through a pin hole. I drilled a sloping hole up at this point and a trickle of rusty water came out. I kept drilling further and further down until I had dry holes about two feet above the bottom. Did the same on the other side.
Some of the holes that hit steel inside the rudder leaked a bit of water. A couple that leaked a lot were shown by the rusty stains on the rudder in the spring. These were half way down just above those “dry” holes.
I fixed the cracks at the top of the rudder as you did. I plugged the holes of course in the spring. Every year since I have drilled a couple more holes and there was no water leaking out in the last few years though I know the core is still wet.
The real fix is to drop the rudder out and rebuild it. Which I will do one year. Maybe.
But if you don’t want to do that at least try to get the water out before the rudder freezes. Having the damp core is bad but lots of water might cause the rudder to split.
Tom
26C # 28 North Star
Penetanguishene