Rudder blade broke

Decus666

New Member
Took my sunfish to the beach and launched it. Wind blew me back into a sandbar as I was leaping in. Sailed around for a while and beached it and noticed the bottom half of my rudder floating away. Anyone ever try fixing theirs? It's the wooden one. Or should I just get the new plastic/fiberglass ones?



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this is how i fixed it the day it happened.


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I seem to recall that other sailors have repaired small cracks by drilling holes completely through the rudder and inserting dowels to strengthen it, and then using epoxy to "glue" the pieces back together - but I don't recall seeing that method used for a completely split rudder.

The big concern is whether or not you can repair it strongly enough to work - I'd hate to fiddle with it that much, and just have it break again on another day on the water.

I think you'd be better off finding a used rudder to buy, or there are sometimes posting for guys who make new versions at their own shop. Or, just buck up and buy the new plastic/fiberglass one.

Cheers,
tag
 
Yeah after I posted it gave me a list of other topics about broke rudders. Thanks. I will probably buy the plastic/Fiberglas one and repair the wooden one to keep as a spare. Was thinking I could belt sand a groove along the break. Deep enough for a strip of fiberglas matting and a couple layers of epoxy. That way I can glass the whole crack and still have it fit in the gudgeon bracket.
 
If you use wood glue and clamps, the joint will be stronger than the surrounding wood. The trick is not to clamp it so tight that you squeeze out all the glue.

Look a picture of old sailing ships and you'll see they had iron bands around the rudder to prevent this. Sort of the same thing as a barrel stave.
 
I'm going to try the Fiberglas route. But I have to wait for the new one to come in. Got to tape it back up to be ready for the coming days. I just don't have any time after work to get it done in a reasonable amount of time. Either that or epoxy it together, then rune some bands of Fiberglass around it like I did the tape. Like barrel staves.:cool:
 
Well the new rudder came in, so I can start on the old one. I took it put last Saturday with the old rudder. The duct tape held up in 25mph winds. Although I glanced back once and noticed the tiller was bending pretty good. So maybe I need to reinforce the tiller before I work on the rudder. That won't be able to be a quick fix with duct tape if it breaks.
 

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