Contessa 26 with Broken Rudder

[clockwork orange]

You dont want to use any mat at all, its made for use with polyester or vinylester with binders that disolve with the styrene, do not use with epoxy.You also would not use cloth in this application as it is a woven 0-90 degree orientation so 50% of the fibers are running in the up and down direction where the cedar will do fine by itself, i would use an e glass double bias stitched fabric,.The worst loading i see on this rudder design is in the area that joins the top to the bottom behind the prop appature,this area has to take a twisting load which is why i suggested using a stronger wood for the last couple of sticks.A double bias will resist the twisting forces better than any other fiber orientation in a single fabric,not a lot of need for unis.Cloth is for sheathing where you are not looking to add strength.
Steve.

[OffSeason]

Hello!

Well I am happy to say that the rudder is installed, and my ship is back in her natural environment. This was not without ado. After driving to the boat and fitting the rudder, I discovered that the top pintle was mounted so it hung the rudder an 1/8th of an inch too far aft. This resulted in the lower end of the rudder being fractionally too near the keel when it was turned.... creating a binding situation.

It was a 3 1/2 hour drive home again with the rudder. Strip some bottom paint, and sand it down, and glass and epoxy and then more bottom paint. Anyway, the rudder is on! She's off the hard! That is not the end of this story though.... on returning to her slip.... there was a mishap... I think the prop spun off!! The rudder was then jammed over so I couldn't steer. Fortunately a friendly jet-ski towed me over to my slip, where I guess I am going to have to get wet. I don't know much about how props are attached, but I guess I will now have to find out.

[Cheechako]

Wow, a prop spinning off.... especially the one in the pic which appears frimly attached would be pretty wierd.... are you sure it didnt come unattached from the engine and slide back?

[daedaluscan]

Looks like you did a good job.

Don't get discouraged, you have a great boat and you are learning heaps. You need to know your boat well to have confidence in it.And you are going to have to fix it all sooner or later anyway

Sounds to me like the prop shaft came out of the coupling. Were you in reverse?. Check the packing gland asap.

[clockwork orange]

Congratulations,you got it done.I agree that it sounds like the shaft has come out of the flange coupling,the photo shows the cotter pin in place so i doubt the prop has moved.when you get it back in place and the set screws tight make sure you wire them so they cant come loose again. A trick i use to prevent the shaft from moving back if this happens and in a settup like yours jamming the rudder or worse on modern boats with spade rudders the shaft can come right out and sink the boat is to put a hose clamp on the shaft about 1/2" in front of the stuffing box.
Steve.