Rebuilding a rudder with a corroded stock

[teneicm]

So we've decided not to take any chances with the crevice corrosion that we found on our rudderstock and have added yet another (unplanned) project to the list of things to do during this haul out. The thread we started asking about whether the degree of pitting was concerning or not can be found here.

Thought folks might be interested in the process, so we snapped a few photos to show what's in the guts of a spade ruder from a 1992 Privilege 482 catamaran.

We started off by grinding out the outline of a panel on one side of the ruder. We ended up getting lucky with the side we chose (as you'll see based on how the internal supports were laid out). Some help with a pry bar managed to coax the heavily built skin off of the internal foam.

From there we started digging out the foam to reveal the rudderstock and 4 support tangs. All were heavily encased in fiberglass and structurally attached to the "wall" of the rudder. If we had chosen the other side of the ruder to make our initial opening, we would have never gotten the panel off! Even though there was evidence of prior water intrusion, a repair from 3 years ago where I drained the water, reskinned the rudder, and resealed the rudderstock entry into the blade seems to have held up well and there was no water in the foam as we chiseled it out.

A bit of grinding exposed the top layer and edge of the support tangs and the stock itself. Some sharp blows from a hammer helped break the bond between the resin and the stainless metal, allowing us to work some tools under the edge of the tangs and gradually pry them up.

A Fein tool made quick work of cutting a notch in the top of the rudder to allow the rudderstock and armature assembly to come free. The rudderstock is now off being re-fabricated. We'll post more as we start the reassembly process after getting the new ruddderstock .