Foam rudder hairline craking

I recently stripped a 10 layers of bottom paint from the foam rudder on my E32-2, and am noticing some fine hairline cracking. It's not deep but looks as though I should take some precautions before repainting. Any advice by someone who has done this job would be appreciated.

Present boat has not had this problem, but our prior one did. It was along the leading edge. We ground it down a bit and layed on some light cloth. Then faired it it. Coated with epoxy to seal it, and bottom paint.
Never happened again.
Have you drilled some test holes in the rudder to see if you have saturated coring? If you do, then consider doing some surgery to see if the armature is still welded solidly to the shaft.
Just a little added fun for your next haulout....


Best,
Loren in PDX

Rudder probs

Jorge,
Cracking could be a problem if it has rusted the frame or soaked the foam core. Does the rudder droll water at all when you are on the hard, say from the top around the shaft. If so you might have a problem that would require cutting the rudder open and examining the interior. If not, then grind donwn the cracks and use west sytem and some cloth (at least 10oz) and glass over the cracked area. Fair it in with more west system and 407 filler. Cover the whole rudder with three coats of Interlux 2000 and bottom paint over that. Good luck. Ryan

Care and feeding of rudders

A few years ago I got my shorts in a bind about my rudder after attending a safety at sea seminar during which Ralph Naranjo spoke of losing his E39 rudder in the Indian Ocean due to corrosion of the welds holding the tangs to the shaft. My rudder had exhibited splitting at all four seams, leaking around the shaft, horizontal cracks half way up on the starbord side combined with delamination of the skin in the same area. Nevertheless the rudder was structurally sound - the core is a very dense closed cell foam which cannot absorb water. Any water will be around the shaft coming from the top (bad) or under the skin. I had the rudder cored and no corrosion was detected. I then repaired the rudder by routing around the shaft and squeezing in 5200, taping all the open seams and then fairing them and injecting epoxy into the voids. I do not believe that it is necessary to apply fiberglass over the cracks, except at the seams. (For one thing, the bottom of the rudder is designed to break off in the case of a grounding so that you do not bend the shaft and either put a hole in the boat or lose all steering.) In any event, my rudder has been problem free for the last 5 years since the repairs.

With all due respect to Loren, I would be very carefully about drilling into the foam to check for saturation (which, in any event, is closed cell) because the resultant holes will continue to open up unless you then fiberglass over them and the holes will not be big enough allow you to inspect the welds. (My rudder was cored with a 1 1/2" hole and the yard was lucky enough to hit a the top weld.) I would first check for delamination (tap the surface with a coin or small hammer) and if you find delamination, then drill holes only through the skin and inject epoxy from the bottom hole until is comes out the top.

I have also started to paint my rudder white since, according to Foss Foam, heat from the sun (when the boat is in the yard) is a major cause of rudder delamination.

But they were such Little holes.....

About drilling holes... I meant only small ones to let any water drain out. One my last boat the rudder sat in my garage one winter and water seeped out of the drains for a month. I always suspected that some water got in and froze, widening the cracks.
In any case, all holes (3/8 inch or so drill size) were filled with thickened resin and after that the cracks were covered and faired. I painted the above water part (transom rudder) with LPU.
It looked wonderful, IMHO...


Loren

Painting rudders white

Geoff wrote:

"I have also started to paint my rudder white since, according to Foss Foam, heat from the sun (when the boat is in the yard) is a major cause of rudder delamination."


I never got around to painting our rudder white, but I meant to.

A few years ago during fall haul out our rudder got quite hot in the sun, and a bubble formed on the side. Turns out it was a void in the foam. After having the void fixed we made a white nylon cover for the rudder that we would put on when the boat was hauled, and only remove when the boat was safely indoors for the winter. If you put your hand on a dark rudder in the sun on a warm day it can almost get too hot to handle. No wonder Ericson suggests (at least in my manual) that the rudder be covered with white foam for the winter - though I've never seen an Ericsonian do this. For that matter, shouldn't other boat owners do this too?

In my yard of maybe 150 boats, I have seen only one or two others with a white rudder. I find that white has the additional advantage in the dark waters of Long Island Sound of making the rudder more visible from the surface.