New Rudder Box

[Dave R1]

I'm building a new rudder box for Julie K and I'm looking for some opinions. I redesigned the upper part of it to avoid the open area between the cheeks that is exposed to the outside. That area is next to impossible to get into to clean and paint. Now of course there's a larger enpty space inside.

I have two thoughts about that space. One is to cut out most of the cheeks in that area so that it can easily dry out. This would also slightly reduce the weight aft which wouldn't hurt.

My other thought is to glue up the center pieces and one cheek with an epoxy fillet around the inside. Then mix up some good thick epoxy and "mortar" around the inside edges of the centerpieces and then snug down the other cheek and hope for a seal all the way around.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

[capt jake]

On that void are in the box, I epoxied the heck out of it prior to assembly; no problems yet. I didn't paint inside there.

I did have a delamination of one of the side pieces of the box though. I ground taht down, filles it and then covered with coth; no prolems last year with it.

[Dave R1]

Jake, thanks for that. I am having a little delamination on the original box which was the impetus for a new box. I had been thinking about replacing the eyebolts with gudgeons from Duckworks. I figure I might be able to use gudgeons on both the boat and rudder box and use stainless pins to hold them together. I used stainless eyebolts but couldn't get a piece of stainless rod to fit. I ended up with a piece of all-thread with some Pex tubing (Thanks to Bill P) slipped over it. That made for a pretty nice hinge but water got up inside and caused the all-thread to rust. Not very pretty.

I guess I'll do as you did and epoxy the heck out of the interior void.

This time around, I'm using Baltic birch plywood because I have it on hand. Even though it isn't intended for exterior use, I expect it'll be fine once it is glassed, epoxied and painted.

[capt jake]

I also used SS eye bolts and standard all thread. :roll: I found SS all thread at Tacoma screw a few months ago; I didn't realize they had it! I ran the SS eybolts into SS 'T' nuts.

You won't have to worry about painting the epoxy in there. It only needs to be protected from UV, I highly doubt that you will have any sunlight inside there.

[Bill Paxton]

Lately I've been wondering about using Jim Michalak's rudder design on a Weekender.

You might think of it as half a rudder box. My Weekender has a lot of weather helm, and the forces exerted on the rudder would probably rip the thing apart. However, I know that on more balanced boats, this design works well. (I have no complaints about the Weekender design. I'm just saying that my boat ended up with a lot of weather helm.)

You can find Jim's essay on his rudder design at:

http://marina.fortunecity.com/breakwater/274/1999/0601/index.htm

[PAR]

Toss out the rudder box design and use something that will not become a heavy, rot pocket. I suggest two 1/8" plates of aluminum plate, used as "cheeks" and some square or rectangular aluminum tubing, the same thickness as your blade, to use as spacers to hold off the cheek pieces. It'll be lighter, stronger, will not rot, can be shimmed to a rattle free status and will accept fasteners (and goo) that will insure it doesn't come undone. If the leading edge of this new "box" used a section of round tubing stock, rather then square, it would present a nice entry, at least much better then the bluff chunk of lumber it replaced. I'd also recommend use of HDPE or similar bearing material for your pivot, possibly with Teflon sheets used on the blade sides (inside the box) to act as slippery shims. Email mail me if you have questions. I have a kick-up rudder design that does away with the box entirely and the entry is as sweet as it can be. It can be fitted to transom or under belly hung rudder locations. The same design also can incorporate a kick-up trolling motor mount, permitting powered helm steering and out of the water motor when not in use.

[kydocfrog]

Now that's an interesting idea. I gotta think on that a bit.

Doc A