Spindrift 11N Composite Rudder

[kmrmike]

In building the Spindrift rudder I sandwiched one piece of 22 oz triax glass between two sanded pieces of 3/8 foam core to give me a nominal finished thickness of aprox.

[Hirilonde]

If I make a mistake say with cutting the foam' date=' I can simply glue on another piece and start over...not with wood.[/quote']

But you should see the wood worker's scrap pile! :oops:

But I do like my wooden rudder:

[jaxsailr]

Looks great... did you duild the rest of the spindrift in foam? What density foam did you use. Also did you use epoxy or polyester?

Regards,

Niels

[kmrmike]

I used 3/8 " divinicell 5 LB foam core and am building the entire boat with foam ,glass and epoxy. If you scroll down in the forum posts you can see the progress from the start....Mike

[kmrmike]

Hirilond

[normoose]

Hello,

If you make a mistake cutting your plywood parts you can now attach a piece to get the desired length with either butt joint and glass tape and resin or a scarfed joint and glass tape and resin.

It may sound strange or even unbelievable but I am attaching an image from one of Harold "Dynamite" Payson's books or plans or maybe downloaded from his site.

What is even stranger is that it works. I doubled the bottom of a 10' skiff (2x1/4") that I built in 2001. I had to overlap and skew my joints and used the process shown to complete the build. I also used this technique for the front seat as I was out of money and wood so I used scraps, with no backers! I can still get in and out of the skiff without getting my feet wet by standing on the butt jointed seat top.

[kmrmike]

My point with just gluing two pieces of foam together, its fast, easy and hidden. with wood, the butt joint may show through the finish and although the scarf joint is great, look at the time it takes to do the job.