Making a New Rudder Blade!

After Nathan and I had the most horrendous experience when the plywood rudder snapped, we needed to source a new rudder. In the meantime we were able to get a couple of little jobs done on Elise just to make her a little more practical. As a temporary measure I trimmed off the top of the ply rudder and fitted it back into the stock. It was a sawn off version, just a bit shorter. But this allowed Libby and I to get under the bridge and camp up the river. The sawn off was fine for this and in fact served as a suitable creek crawling rudder. Shallow draught and pivoting. It would also serve as a spare blade and can be kept aboard in case of an emergency.

Rudder ideas

I’d been looking online for rudders and it seemed the only way I was going to get a replacement was by getting one made at high expense. Not an option. So I had a route around in all the boat stuff my dad and I had accumulated over the years and we happened to have a prototype carbon fibre lay-up jibing centreboard which was high aspect ratio and was originally for the 505. It looked quite suitable.

Top and bottom- it looks ideal

The plan

It was about the right length but it needed building out at the head to fit in the stock. So the plan was like this:

• Cut the top bits off so it would fit and pivot in the stock.
• Build out the head so it would fit in the stock
• Cut the bottom off as it was too long
• Drill a pivot hole so that the blade was balanced
• Sand and prep
• Spray

The first job was easy, cut the bits off flush. Drill the pivot hole. Most rudders either have an extra bit on the leading edge or they lean slightly forward. This helps with balance. Building the head out was a bit harder, I ground it back to the fibre layup and marked where I wanted to build it out to.

I then applied layers of woven roving and epoxy each side until it was slightly thicker than needed.

I trimmed it up, sanded it back then cut the tip off and filled it in with epoxy and colloidal.

Fairly chuffed with how it was going I was beginning to get excited again. with my new rudder complex that I’d recently acquired, I was obsessing about the strength and avoiding any weak points. Next job was to prep for painting and then finally spraying it up.

Ultimate Green Pearl

Then it was time to do the final coats and lacquer, I couldn’t decide on a colour so I asked Nathan what he would do; to which he suggested Ford focus RS Ultimate green pearl paint. I thought why not.

Ideally I could have used another can as it was a little thin, you could see it was a little stripy, but I wasn’t looking for perfection just protection. I also had the view that it would probably need doing again next season or the one after perhaps. But overall I was dead chuffed and my excitement had been restore.

Sea trials

I tested the rudder and it worked unbelievably well, it has enough grip which allowed for easy manoeuvring at the slowest of speeds, but isn’t heavy and not causing too much drag at higher speeds. If you let go of the tiller, it will slowly go port or starboard, so the balance is just right.

To summarise

It was a right result that we had this centreboard in stock and unused. It was also a great project to do because I’d processed what had happened at sea with the old rudder. In a way, I was glad the old one broke. I was also glad that Libby wasn’t with me at the time. Things happen for a reason- and although it happened as a result of compounding errors- I was chuffed to have a strong and solid replacement which restored my confidence that I’d lost due to the trauma. Pretty dramatic hey!!!!

If you don’t know what happened- check my other post about the rudder breaking here.

Thanks for reading! Until next time……..

Ollie- Boated out!

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