My rudder is wet too...

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emkay

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May 6, 2008
70
Hunter 27 Buffalo
Well, not for long! scrape scrape! And rip it open, cut out as much of the wet foam as I could, this stuff is REALLY HARD! . drying out nicely, no corrosion. Ordered the foam, glass, and epoxy needed to fix from US Composites, seem to be good prices. I ordered the hardest stuff I could to fill it back up, 16lb, good enough? The glass is really thin, the gelcoat is really thick, and the skin is very hard to get off the foam. I guess the structural strength of the rudder is the foam! Which would worried me until I tried to get it out, it's like chipping out concrete, I ended up drilling chunks out with my hole saw. The P.O. attempted to fix it, there are some holes drilled and filled with...something, and a lot of bondo. I'm gonna fix it right, going to add another 2 layers of glass on top of the entire rudder, once I get rid of all the extra bondo. It's now drying out in front of a heater vent.



 
Ed Schenck

Ed Schenck

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Jun 2, 2004
5,802
Hunter 37-cutter, '79 41 23' 30"N 82 33' 20"W--------Huron, OH
Foss Foam made the originals and I don't think they were using gelcoat back then. But maybe. The new rudders are sprayed, not laid up on gelcoat like the hull. Notice also that they are using 20#. http://newrudders.com/?page_id=12 .

I had mine done exactly like you are doing by some pros. I wish I could remember the weight of the foam. They showed me that the original problem was that there were large voids in the rudder from shoddy application of the original foam. This let water collect in the voids and eventually soak into the foam.
 
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steve h37c

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May 5, 2010
6
hunter 37c long beach
WOW, same problem

Ed Schenck said:
Foss Foam made the originals and I don't think they were using gelcoat back then. But maybe. The new rudders are sprayed, not laid up on gelcoat like the hull. Notice also that they are using 20#. http://newrudders.com/?page_id=12 .

I had mine done exactly like you are doing by some pros. I wish I could remember the weight of the foam. They showed me that the original problem was that there were large voids in the rudder from shoddy application of the original foam. This let water collect in the voids and eventually soak into the foam.
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I thought i was the only one.. when i hauled out last year i was shocked to see the side of my rudder bulging out because it was full of water.. i cut it open, and drained it for 3 months before it was dry enough to repair it. I had to reglass the side with several different layers of cloth, then i refibergalssed to whole rudder.. WHERE did this water come from?? i found a crack about 14 inches long on the leading edge of the rudder from the post down. its been a year sense i did this, and she is still in great shape.
 
Ed Schenck

Ed Schenck

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Jun 2, 2004
5,802
Hunter 37-cutter, '79 41 23' 30"N 82 33' 20"W--------Huron, OH
Pretty certain that the water gets in at the top. Mine originally had a small separation between the rudder stock and the glass. That was my first fix, an epoxy mix to seal that circumference. Then I drained it every fall at haulout and really had no problems after that.
 
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emkay

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May 6, 2008
70
Hunter 27 Buffalo
Mine came from the top of the post, there is a small cap that goes on top of the post that wasn't in place
 
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