Hey guys,

I've been following the rudder thread as I anticipated having to do a "little" repair! Well it may have to be a bit larger repair than that!

I would like to try and barrier coat the rudder in place. ???? Any comments? I think the rudder is ok but the fiberglass has separated from the wood in spots.

I plan to grind off the peeling fiberglass and take it down to bare wood and also expose the strap and boot. From there I will make the decision to repair in place or remove.

I read the article in the nifty Ideas on the rudder removal. seems fairly straight forward. Any comments or suggestions on removing the rudder?

Also, there is some sort of material on the leading edge of the exposed rudder shaft. Does that need to resealed /covered?

Seems that anything you use on will come off.

Thanks,

Bob

I am replacing my rudder on my ensign right now, rule book calls for a 1/2 inch  or more clearance between top of rudder and hull. Even with a half inch gap it would be dicey to get rudder off without removing shoe. A 3/4 gap would be enough gap to remove rudder, but you do have to torture it out with a little bending of the shaft and maybe a tap with rubber hammer. Depending wether you have lots of west in the rudder besrings. I recommend removing the shoe, cause that's what I did lol. I did mine because 50 years ago the rudder shaft was glue in by Pearson off center. 

Hi Zeke,

I'm not sure if I follow you. As I read the class specs it calls for a gap no less than .5 inches. Where do you get you 1/4 from?

The rudder may be fiberglassed (using cloth and resin) as long as the rudder dimensions are not changed. The gap between the top of the rudder and the hull shall not be less than 1/2".

Thanks! I'll let yall know how it works out.

Hi Chris,

That is correct, I did NOT have to remove the lower rudder foot. Good luck!

Robert, Are you saying that you could remove the rudder without removing the rudder foot? Just the strap and then you had the clearance to lift it free of the foot then ease it back down and out? I'm fixing to do the same job on #71 and would appreciate taking as little apart as possible.

Thanks

Chris Anderson

Picture of the loose sleeve bearing. About 1 inch tall , 1.5 outer diameter. Inner diameter you can see how badly it is worn on one side only. Pretty darn sure this belongs at the bottom of the tube. Perhaps I can mold a new bearing in place from epoxy.

Nice work on your rudder. Decided to do mine also and found some flaws that I am not surprised with, and I suspected many years ago.

Basically the factory glassed in the rudder tube in the cockpit off center by about a 1/4 inch. It's always had friction but not to bother steering. What it means is the bottom of the rudder lines up perfectly on center, but the top is off center so water flow on one side hits a bump, the other side hits a hollow. I want to go faster and have water flow with least resistance which means getting rudder blade dead center.

I will be moving the top bronze bearing on the seat to where it belongs, by filling the old holes and drilling new and sanding a little bit of clearance on the rudder tube.

What I found that's a mystery is a plastic sleeve bearing loose in the rudder tube. I can't tell if it belongs up high near the seat so that it prevents metal to metal contact between the top of the shaft and the bronze bearing on the seat. Or if it goes at the bottom of the rudder tube so that it supports the approximate middle of the shaft. My thoughts is that it belongs near the bottom off the rudder tube so that the shaft is supported by three points.

Just wondering if someone who has there rudder out could look in with a bright flashlight to see where this sleeve bearing belongs.

Thanks in advance Jim Knape Lickety Split 1576

I had another great work day in the shop today. I'm thinking I'll be able to get this boat in the water by the end of June.

First post today was working on the rudder bolts and wood screws

https://bobsprojects.org/2021/05/16/rudder-bolts-wood-screws/

The second post was working on how I'm attaching the rear half of the rudder.

https://bobsprojects.org/2021/05/16/attaching-the-rear-half-of-the-rudder/

Way cool, Bob!

I made some great progress on my rudder build today. Take a look at my post from today.

https://bobsprojects.org/2021/05/15/time-to-get-to-work/

I am in the tech field so I decided to create a website for my projects that I'm working on. It is a work in progress (I'm not a web guy) but I wanted to use it to track my rudder progress.

Here is my first post regarding my rudder build

https://bobsprojects.org/2021/05/09/starting-the-rudder-build/

If you view it from your phone, it is best to view it with your phone tilted in landscape.

I hope to get this rudder done as soon as possible so I'll be updating my posts often on my site.

https://bobsprojects.org

As I progress with this site it will be easy to just select any posts related to my Pearson Ensign or even the rudder build since I'm using post categories. I will also give updates here and answer any questions.

I would think thicker would be be less drag and faster as long as it is not wider than the aft edge of the keel. Matching the width of the keel exactly seems like it would be less drag. But then tapering would be more complicated. Another issue is the trailing edge. Some have made it square rather than pointed touting speed benefits. The production rudders you can buy are square tailed, yet none of these have won in nationals ,so might not have an advantage over a carefully hand shaped tapered rudder. Then a few have made a slight concave in the trailing edge with sharper edges again looking for more speed. I have no idea which method is the fastest

Hi Bud,

I would be more than happy to create a document on doing this.

Do you see any issues if I wanted to keep the rudder 1.25 inches at its thickest point before glassing? For some reason I feel a little better keeping it on the thicker side. Like I said my original piece is 1.75 inches thick.