I think the epoxy barrier coat is coming off my rudder, It looks like this part of the rudder is bronze. Does anyone have experience with this?
Bronze rudder part
- Thread starter GarEi
- Start date
I doubt any of it is bronze. Do you have a photo of the area you are concerned about? It could be as simple as stained gelcoat.
Hi Dave thanks for the reply, no photos yet need to go to the yard soon I will get some photos. The epoxy barrier coat is coming off both sides of the rudder at the same spot. I will take some sand paper to the spots to see if it looks like bronze. The other problem I guess I can get a quart of epoxy barrier coat and reapply to the rudder, the boat was done about 5 years ago. Thanks again
I was in the yard this afternoon and there is a P303. If you are referring to the area indicated by the arrow, then there is a bronze gudgeon there. Before spending a lot of money on a quart of epoxy paint, it would be good to understand why the paint failed there. It could be because of poor preparation or some other reason. A photo of your rudder and the area of concern would still be helpful. This boat is having some issues with its bottom paint too.
Hi Dave This is definitely bronze, I guess I will grind or sand back epoxy barrier coat until I find good adheasion and reapply barrier coat.
That looks like fairing compound more than a barrier coat. The horizontal crack just below the bare part is interesting. Is the entire skeg bronze? How does it join to the hull?
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 23,065
That certainly could be “bronze”. That would be a very big piece of bronze on the skeg. It would not be like Pearson to be building such a robust piece of hardware on the skeg. I wonder why the crack in the blue circle
Suspicion the boat was grounded or something struck the skeg and caused the crack. While working on the “Bronze”, I would inspect this crack as well.
Suspicion the boat was grounded or something struck the skeg and caused the crack. While working on the “Bronze”, I would inspect this crack as well.
Looks like I have a bit of work coming this spring, horizontal crack hopefully just cracked bottom paint and barrier coat. that maybe wishful thinking. I will find out in the spring. I don't know how the skeg is joined to the boat fiberglassed into the hull would be my guess. It does look like a large piece of bronze but it supports the rudder and all the stresses of the rudder.
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 23,065
I am no expert on Pearsons, but the part that flaked off certainly looks like fairing compound. Could be a thick bottom paint, but I think it is fairing compound.
The horizontal crack maybe deeper than the fairing compound. I would be grinding that down to good FG and see what is going on there. Repair as necessary and then re-fair and paint.
And I suspect the skeg is fiberglass, with bronze ”hinges”.
Greg
The horizontal crack maybe deeper than the fairing compound. I would be grinding that down to good FG and see what is going on there. Repair as necessary and then re-fair and paint.
And I suspect the skeg is fiberglass, with bronze ”hinges”.
Greg
It's hard to tell from the photos, however, I doubt that skeg is bronze. It sort of looks like stained gelcoat. Back in the day when this boat was built coal tar epoxy was often used as a barrier coat. The staining looks a bit like it might be from the coal tar.
If this were my boat, I wouldn't be waiting until spring to find out if this is really bronze or stained gelcoat. (hint, hint, inquiring minds want to know)
Unfortunately the boat is two hours away and water and electricity are shut off for the winter. This is going to be a spring project.
OK I got back to the boat and made the repair. The Pearson 303 has bronze rudder mounts in the skeg, the epoxy barrier coat was peeling off both sides of the skeg. I removed all the loose barrier coat, scraped the bottom paint off of the barrier coat that was sound so I could apply new barrier coat to the well adhered barrier coat. There was some fairing compound that needed to be removed and then replaced. So I cleaned and sanded the bronze cleaned again an applied Interlux Watertite epoxy filler. I sanded and faired the filler and applied the first coat of Interlux Interprotect 2000e blending it into the well adhered barrier coat and let it dry per instructions. I then put on 3 coats of Interlux Interprotect 2000e letting the paint become tacky and using the thumb print test then applied the next coat. Finally I applied Interlux Micron CSC before the last coat of Interlux Interprotect 2000e dried and was still tacky giving it the thumb print test. That should fix the problem I will find out in the fall.
