Weeping Rudder

[wallandj]

Our sailboat's rudder has begun to weep water from 2-3 small cracks. Noticing it about 6 weeks ago, I removed the emergency tiller cap and looked down the hollow rudderstock and saw water. I sucked the water out of the the rudderstock with a wet/dry vacuum and drilled 6 - 1/8" holes in the rudder for drainage.

Well, 6 weeks later, the rudder is still draining and its now time to go back in the water. The drain holes and cracks dry up when its cool but begin weeping again as soon as it warms up.

Any ideas on how to stopper these holes? Know of any products that will adhere to moist fiberglass? Longer term, how should I go about repairing this problem?

Thanks.

Dave
S/V Horizon

[DeepFrz]

Bite the bullet and fix your rudder properly before you launch. Your life may depend on it.

[BilgeRat]

I'd be weeping too if I had that much water coming out of my crack.

Sorry, I just couldn't resist that one

[Alan Wheeler]

You can use epoxy putty. But I wouldn't recomend you putting the rudder back in till you have worked out what where and how. You need to know how much water is still in there, how did it get in there, and what damage has been done and what is it going to take to repair it properly.

[swagman]

I'm with all the others. Get it fixed before you reslip. Had one rudder delaminate once when under spinnaker. Scary.

If you get more water out when its warm, then why not create a 'oven' using a heater and wood frame / plastic covers and really get it dried out?

I don't want to be alarmist but also suggest you might want to check out what form of core is inside the rudder as well. A wood core may have been damaged by so much moisture.

Drilling more holes and circulating warm air will help get the moisture out - as would some form of vacuum bagging if you could arrange it.

Once fully dry and you also happy with the rudders structural strength, you can as suggested plug all openings with epoxy putty, fair off, repaint and refit.

Its not as hard as it might sound.
Good luck
JOHN

[Boracay]

Could you post a couple of photos?

[Charlie]

drill bigger holes in the rudder to help it dry out faster and to gauge the extent of the damage. Would you drive a car if the steering wheel was about to fall off?

[Rick]

There are two problems with a fiberglass rudder and a stainless rudder stock. First it is difficult to make a seal that will hold up to the water between the stainless and fiberglas interface. Second, once water gets into the rudder and a crack develops in the rudder any sealing of the crack will often result in another crack when the rudder is exposed to direct sunlight.

Like others have pointed out if the core has soaked up water the entire rudder should be opened and the core removed and replaced. The seal between the stock and the fiberglass needs to be professionally repaired. All this is still less expensive than making a new rudder.

It took me three attempts and 5 years before my rudder finally got fixed. It never was proper even from the factory. Finally found a competent boat yard with the personnell sufficiently knowledgable and experienced to effect a permanent repair. They removed the rudder and repaired with it to a shop and did some magic because after six years it still is in great shape.

[SkiprJohn]

I have the same problem with my rudder. I have removed it. I'm going to split it down the centerline and then try to remove the halves. If that doesn't work I'm going to grind away the glass and foam that is in there and check the welds. If the welds have been in saltwater then they might need to be redone. Once I get that finished then I'll foam fill and try to line up the two halves again, reglass with epoxy and seal the top of the rudder where the stainless shaft enters with polysulfide sealant that is flexible. Hopefully that will cure the problem.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

JohnL

[delmarrey]

before doing the hyd. steering install. That gave me a chance to find any problems along the way.

It had a lot of surface cracks but none to the core, fortunatly. I drilled a few small holes in the bottom and let it dry out in several positions for a couple months before doing some fare work.

There was a small gap where the post goes into the rudder. So, I ground out a 1/4" grove in the glass around the post where it passes thru. Then filled that with the softest Boatcalk so it would flex as needed. Then glassed over the top of that. I stripped it all down to bare glass and covered it with two more layers of glass and epoxy. The entry point for the post is around 4" above the waterline but still I wanted it sealed good for the rough weather. Before and after shots below........................._/)

[SkiprJohn]

Looks like a great job. Did you check out the metal web inside the rudder for corrosion at the joints?
When we get a few rudder failures coming from the West Coast to Hawaii each year it makes me skeptical about the internal workings and quality of work done on the interior skeleton of the production rudders.
JohnL

[wallandj]

Thanks very much for the replies folks. With this much consensus, I have to agree and will have the yard pull and rebuild the rudder, along with inspection of the armature.

The oozing water is rusty and I don't want to chance it.

Dave S/V Horizon

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

Looks like a great job. Did you check out the metal web inside the rudder for corrosion at the joints?
When we get a few rudder failures coming from the West Coast to Hawaii each year it makes me skeptical about the internal workings and quality of work done on the interior skeleton of the production rudders.
JohnL

This boat was all hand built (No mold then). But there were no signs of rust/bleeding so I left the rudder intact. This one has two sister ships. One has crossed the Pacific twice. Haven't heard of any failures. The rudder shaft is 3-1/5'' OD stainless pipe with 3/8" wall. And it's filled with some kind of resin. It pivots straight so I'm not too worried............._/)