RUDDER REPAIR

The first project of the winter season has begun.  The rudder has had signs of failure since I had purchased Hullabaloo several seasons ago.  The boat survey completed around the time of purchase indicated there was moisture in the rudder.  Several seasons back, I had tried to dry the rudder out by drilling a series of holes in the outer skin and running a heat lamp for about six weeks then glassing the holes up.  Turns out this did not work.

The most significant visual sign of failure was a crack in the leading edge of the rudder between the gudgeons.

Weighing the rudder resulted in a total weight of 75 lbs.  Most dry J/30 rudders are weighing in at 60-65 lbs., so this meant the rudder was likely carrying 10-15 lbs. of water weight.

Checking the rudder with a moisture meter revealed significant moisture in the rudder.   The meter I use runs a range from 0% to 30%.  Typically, anything under 10% indicates very dry core material.  10%-15% is slightly damp.  15%-20% is noticeably damp.  Anything over 20% you can usually squeeze water out of the core material.

I mapped out the moisture on the rudder and made markings of the moisture content on the rudder with a sharpie marker.  There were only a few moisture readings under 20% with the majority of readings being in the upper 20's and many readings pegging the needle of the moisture meter at its maximum.

I thought about several potential options:  1-Repair the rudder ($300-$500), 2-Build a new rudder ($300-$600) Purchase a new rudder ($2,000+).  Option 1 is the direction I have decided to go, primarily because of cost.

The first step was to remove the skin of the rudder.  I drilled holes at the leading and trailing edges of the rudder to determine where the balsa core started and stopped (the leading and trailing edges of the rudder are solid fiberglass).

Once the extents of the balsa core were determined, I made a grid of cuts in the skin with a circular saw set to a depth that cut through the skin and slightly into the balsa core.

From there, the skin and balsa core were carefully pried and chiseled off with a pry bar and hammer, attempting to take care to not damage the inner core of the rudder.  The inner core in this rudder appears to be some type of a resin/composite filler.  The inner core, in a few locations, is cracked.  This is presumably due to moisture in the rudder and previous winter storage seasons where the rudder was exposed to freezing and thawing.

A few pictures of the rudder with the skin removed and the remains of the skin and balsa core.