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Thread: i am making a rudder

  1. #71
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    Quote Originally Posted by AlanH View Post
    Bottom paint went on, today. I got a quart of West Marine's ablative paint in black. I'm stunned. The rudder is nowhere near as smooth as I thought it was. I sanded that thing and sanded it and sanded it. I filled the weave twice, and sanded. Damn.
    I guess I'm going to sail with it as it is this season, as I've already submitted my handicap rating application listing this rudder. However, the boat will go in for it's biannual haulout in December and I will strip the bottom paint off of rudder and fair some more while the yard works on the hull. I'd rather not miss another race.

    Today the tiller fitting went on and I knocked out a somewhat crude tiller, but it will get me back on the water. I also sanded down the bushings I bought , as they were a touch too big, and tapped them into the gudgeons. The above-the-water parts got a final coat of polyurethane. And finally, I made an emergency tiller.

    We are getting very close to putting the thing on.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  2. #72
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    What's left is a last coat of bottom paint, and then installing the rudder gudgeons. I can't put on bottom paint in the garage, so this weather is not helping...
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  3. #73
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    The rudder has been on the boat for two-plus months, just sitting there while I recovered from rotator cuff surgery. This weekend I FINALLY got the bushings on. oooo. smooooth twisty-turny and no CLUNK.

    I'll *FINALLY* find out if wiggling the tiller makes the boat turn while on the SSS cruise-in.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  4. #74
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    It worked, and in moderate winds was pretty light. When overpowered on a broad reach, it does load up. Big surprise. The lower gudgeon bushing needs re-thinking and the tiller and tillerhead functioned fine but could be stiffer. I might replace the aluminum tiller-head with a s.s. one, 2-3 inches longer for more tillerhead / tiller contact surface.

    Otherwise, a success!
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  5. #75
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    Sep 2007
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    Quote Originally Posted by AlanH View Post
    It worked, and in moderate winds was pretty light. When overpowered on a broad reach, it does load up. Big surprise. The lower gudgeon bushing needs re-thinking and the tiller and tillerhead functioned fine but could be stiffer. I might replace the aluminum tiller-head with a s.s. one, 2-3 inches longer for more tillerhead / tiller contact surface.

    Otherwise, a success!
    I admire people who can do stuff that I have to write big checks for. Nice job Alan!

  6. #76
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    Quote Originally Posted by BobJ View Post
    I admire people who can do stuff that I have to write big checks for. Nice job Alan!
    Thanks, Bob! Now to fix that bushing issue and move on.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  7. #77
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    The rudder has been on the boat for a year and she REALLY needs a haulout but I'm short of boat bucks. So I pulled the rudder off the boat...blew off the tunicates and algae, realized that there was essentially no bottom paint on the rudder and decided to bring it home. After a good scrub with a scotchbrite pad and a once-over with 180 grit sandpaper I realized that...wow, it's nowhere near as fair as I remembered.

    ugh.

    I ground off a couple of places where the topsides polyurethane was cracking and re-coated. Today I took a close look at some cracks near the top of the rudder. One is surface stuff, I just ground off the polyurethane and used some epoxy and microballoons to smooth it out. I'll sand it pretty tomorrow. However, the same crack above the upper gudgeon is actually a crack in the triaxial fiberglass. I will need to take a hard look at that soon. It could be that the very top of the rudder needs another wrap of triaxial.

    I discovered that the 6 ounce glass I put on the bottom had pulled away from the bottom of the wood, so I ground that off and laid on some more 6-ounce in spooge. It dried out for two weeks so it's probably fine. The epoxy is kicking off right now.

    And while I was at it, I made a new tiller. I also prettified up the e-tiller. Projects
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

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