Kick up rudder

[Kaysirin]

Greetings!

I recently purchased a 2007 Hunter 25, it has a few minor bumps and scrapes I am currently tending to. The kick up rudder has been dragged/scrapped and bumped a few time it seems and the bow eye looks like it's hit the dock or was cranked on too hard while on the trailer, blowing out some of the gelcoat and pushing the eye out of center. Nothing major, but I feel both are in need of some TLC before I intend on launching it in the water for my first time. I've already ground/sanded back all the shattered and crushed bits on the rudder. My question is, since the damage on the rudder has not gone very deep, should I bother laying in some cut to size sheets of fiberglass, or is short strand reinforced fiberglass filler and a fresh gelcoat cover good enough? I have photos attached for the rudder and will continue the thread when I get to the bow eye. The rudder pivot bushing is also in rough shape. Thank you in advance for any who wish to reply.

Kind regards, Kaysirin.

 

[dlochner]

Most of those dings should be repaired with glass and epoxy. Then faired and gel coated. One small ding ( 15384.jpg) can probably be repaired with a good epoxy fairing compound.

 

[Jacktar]

Might want to check on composition of rudder structure one area looks like there may have been water intrusion.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Former Hunter dealer who introduced your boat. Send a private message message as I introduced all small trailerable hunter ssilboats
Dave

 

[Kaysirin]

I took a few photos of what I've done so far, I was thinking maybe I could get away with laying strips of fiberglass along the bottom edge of the rudder where it dragged. But then thought the glass matting might need more to hold onto around the edge. So I put some tape as a guesstimate to how far I might need to sand back the gelcoat, so the matting can hold onto 3 sides of the bottom edges, instead of just the very bottom edge.

Should I keep sanding towards the tape, or just lay a strip along what I have sanded to reinforce the damaged area? I have two types of fiberglass matting, chopped strand and woven, I also have polyester and epoxy resins, though I am thinking to use the more water resistant and stronger epoxy from West system, since it seems to be an area prone to dragging if not careful.

 

[dlochner]

The glass needs a large surface area to bond, in wood working it is called a scarf. Butt joints are weak.

Polyester resin is a better choice if you use glass mat as the mat is glued together with a styrene soluble glue which will dissolve in polyester resin. It is much more difficult to get epoxy to saturate mat and you end up with a resin rich brittle layup.

Mat is good for building laminate thickness and as a finish layer as it will sand smooth and hide the weave of cloth. Cloth is much stronger.

 

[Kaysirin]

The glass needs a large surface area to bond, in wood working it is called a scarf. Butt joints are weak.

Polyester resin is a better choice if you use glass mat as the mat is glued together with a styrene soluble glue which will dissolve in polyester resin. It is much more difficult to get epoxy to saturate mat and you end up with a resin rich brittle layup.

Mat is good for building laminate thickness and as a finish layer as it will sand smooth and hide the weave of cloth. Cloth is much stronger.

Thank you very much for replying Dave

So it would for sure be better to sand back more of the Gelcoat along both sides of the rudder, towards the green line of painters tape in photo (110844.jpg) to give more bonding area then?

There is quite a bit of foam core exposed along the center of the bottom edge, I found a video where Latex paint is used on foam as a chemical/heat barrier while the resin is curing. I've only ever done fiberglass/gelcoat work on wood, in fish holds and landing tables on commercial fishing vessels. Never having to look pretty or needing much fillers. So besides using Bondo on cars and trucks, I'm completely new to this as far as getting a clean bodywork finish for a fiberglass Sailboat and parts with Foam coring. I really appreciate any feedback, thank You kindly.

 

[JBP-PA]

I would sand a taper up a couple inches on the side toward your tape. Add at least a couple layers of cloth, wrapping it up the sides. You don't need to protect the foam, it should be fine. You can then either add some chopped strand mat (CSM) to hide the cloth weave or just use fairing compound. Lastly sand it all fair (use more fairing compound as necessary). You can use either polyester or epoxy, but as dlochner said, don't use normal CSM with epoxy (you can get epoxy friendly CSM commonly called "1208" or "1708" but you don't need to).
For a finish, you can use gel coat, two part paint, or one part paint. One part paint is easiest but will not last as long.

 

[Kaysirin]

I would sand a taper up a couple inches on the side toward your tape. Add at least a couple layers of cloth, wrapping it up the sides. You don't need to protect the foam, it should be fine. You can then either add some chopped strand mat (CSM) to hide the cloth weave or just use fairing compound. Lastly sand it all fair (use more fairing compound as necessary). You can use either polyester or epoxy, but as dlochner said, don't use normal CSM with epoxy (you can get epoxy friendly CSM commonly called "1208" or "1708" but you don't need to).
For a finish, you can use gel coat, two part paint, or one part paint. One part paint is easiest but will not last as long.

Thank you for replying JBP!