Rudder Refinish

A

altair

Member
I still sail with the wooden rudder because I am to cheap to buy the new fiberglass blade. It is 11 yrs old and starting show wear. I keep it slick with McLube but the varnish has worn off the edges and it is down to the wood. What is the best way to refinish the blade and what product will give it a hard slick surface which is class legal?
 
Any good marine varnish (Interlux, Petit etc.) will work fine applied according to their directions. The key is prep. Start with 100 grit sand paper and then go to 220 grit to get a smooth, dull, clean surface. Strain your finish through a paint filter or
cheesecloth (or pantyhose if you have some). Clean the wood surface with a clean cloth and some paint thinner or gasoline (wear gloves) and then apply the finish with a clean brush or a disposable 2" foam brush (my favorite). Let dry, steel wool to dull finish and recoat. 2-3 coats for previously varnished wood is usually enough. 3 to 4 coats if you sand to bare wood.

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
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altair said:
I still sail with the wooden rudder because I am to cheap to buy the new fiberglass blade. It is 11 yrs old and starting show wear. I keep it slick with McLube but the varnish has worn off the edges and it is down to the wood. What is the best way to refinish the blade and what product will give it a hard slick surface which is class legal?
Click to expand...
I did complete the refinish on the rudder blade. It looks good but the varnish finish does not leave a slick feel like the fiberglass blade. Is there a product to put over the dried varnish which will leave a slick feel other than spraying with McLube? McLube does leave a slick finish.
 
When I raced Optimists we would varnish our boats and blades (we used wood boats back then) by applying several coats of varnish then wet sanding, then more coats of varnish and wet sanding. We ended up with at least 10 coats of varnish, probably half sanded off in the end. Final wet sand back then was 400 grit. Now you can get 1000 or 1500 grit. That will get you the smoothest finish.
 
I'm refinishing my daggerboard and rudder. I have almost all the varnish off. I plan to use West epoxy and then put a coat of varnish for UV protection over it. However, one side of the board has a darkish stain that's not coming out with sanding (perhaps from standing water during storage?). Can I apply some wood stain before I apply the epoxy to try to even out the color?
 
No, that is a factory built Alcort boat. That boat is "Zip," the 13th Sunfish built by Alcort in Waterbury 1953ish. Al and Cort couldn't remember exactly when they built the first Sunfish but the time range was 1952-54 and Zip would have been in their first test batch of 20. We were given the boat by the third owner and at the time Zip was up in Grand Island NY. Now she is enjoying warm Gulf waters. When we restored the boat we made a change to the finish scheme, Zip came from the factory with the hull painted red with clear finish coaming and sheer strips.
For the full story on Zip check our blog: Small Boat Restoration: 1952-4 Wooden Sunfish "Zip" and 1977 Brother "Neptune"
 
signal charlie said:
No, that is a factory built Alcort boat. That boat is "Zip," the 13th Sunfish built by Alcort in Waterbury 1953ish. Al and Cort couldn't remember exactly when they built the first Sunfish but the time range was 1952-54 and Zip would have been in their first test batch of 20. We were given the boat by the third owner and at the time Zip was up in Grand Island NY. Now she is enjoying warm Gulf waters. When we restored the boat we made a change to the finish scheme, Zip came from the factory with the hull painted red with clear finish coaming and sheer strips.
For the full story on Zip check our blog: Small Boat Restoration: 1952-4 Wooden Sunfish "Zip" and 1977 Brother "Neptune"
Click to expand...

Wow... how much does she weight? Really beautiful. Interesting guard though, how do you seat yourself for hiking?? Or do you just not need to given her weight?
 
Dearmad said:
Wow... how much does she weight? Really beautiful. Interesting guard though, how do you seat yourself for hiking?? Or do you just not need to given her weight?
Click to expand...

Zip weighs 145 lbs. Basically you can't hike with that splashguard unless you slide far aft, or you can painfully from amidships. In the late 50s Alcort changes the coaming to a smaller one that was v shaped. She doesn't roll much because the original daggerboard is too small, she tends to slide sideways in a breeze and not tack well. We can improve her performance by using a newer generation daggerboard (Barrington) and a 1960s generation rudder like the Super Sailfish and fiberglass Sunfish had.

Back to the rudder refinishing, West System has nice customer service, you can call or email them and get advice on their products.
 
SC, thanks for the heads up on the West System site and customer service. The two links you sent were very handy. I plan to stain, epoxy, and varnish. Plenty of time before next summer! :)
 
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