Rudder damage leads to catastrophic failure?

[L27]

My boat was heavily damaged on her mooring last fall after the remnants of Hurricane Michael passed over the Northeast. Our mooring field, like many in this area, is very exposed to a north blow. I have an overbuilt mooring and all the chafe protection in the world. While many other boats during this storm ended up on the beach, she held strong.

It wasn't until hauling 5 weeks later that I saw the damage. My boat had been slamming off the bottom from the large swell and astronomical low tide that came with the storm.

The bottom of the rudder had blown apart, the rudder shoe had broken loose and keel from midships aft was down to bare gelcoat, with some spots of roving exposed.

I stripped the boat of her sails and running rigging, covered her up for the winter, and left the damage to be repaired in the spring.

Fast forward to a weather window last week. I went to the boat to start the repair only to find a large portion of the lower encapsulated keel cracked. One portion of it had actually blown apart, leaving pieces of laminate on the ground exposing cement underneath.

I'm guessing water intruded after the damage had occurred while it sat in the water those weeks after. This winters freeze and thaw cycles must have taken an extreme toll and this is the result.

I decided to remove some of the dead laminate and found lots of crumbling cement with no end in sight, I stopped and walked away for now. My plan is to fill the voids with new concrete and laminate over that. Most likely, this is on both port and starboard sides, though the starboard side laminate has yet to fail.

Should I keep going, or is she a total loss?

 

[Charlie Jones s/v Tehani]

Keep going for sure. Far from a total loss

 

[rgranger]

Sorry for your troubles....

 

[victorhoisington]

This looks like a very doable repair. You'll need to keep digging to clean cement, patch the cement on both sides as needed, repair the rudder shoe (great chance to make sure it is in perfect condition and then make fair the fiberglass and replace gelcoat. It sounds like a lot but as long as you have reasonable access it shouldn't take too long.

think something like this (total each day is < 4 hours):
- day 1: Clean out all old cement, fiberglass and gelcoat. fair fiberglass as prep for later reglassing. Pull rudder shoe
- day 2: replace cement with cement patch. Clean and repair rudder shoe as needed
- day 3: re install rudder shoe, fair cement, lay on fiberglass to proper thickness
- day 4: fair fiberglass, lay on gelcoat,
- day 5: fair gelcoat, lay on barrier coat and bottom paint
note: this might be a time for a full bottom job to gelcoat, in which case day one will be longer as you remove all of the existing bottom paint and any barrier coats on the whole boat and rudder, this will take time but on my Hunter 28 I did it in a single 4 hours of work. The new barrier coat and bottom paint can go on in a single session - keep moving, 3-4 coats barrier coat, 2-3 coats bottom paint as needed and following manufacturers instructions.

It sounds like a lot but if you plan it out and setup a schedule, its totally doable and well worth the effort. You'll learn some new skills (assuming you haven't done this before) and feel a great sense of pride afterwards.

I'm sure others may have a better schedule or even a much improved method for completing the repairs please do as much research as you can before getting started. The above is what I did (without the rudder shoe) but including the complete bottom job, when I needed to do the bottom on my H28. I did it in less than 2 weeks elapsed time and about the same 5 sessions each lasting 2-4 hours.

Good luck and have fun,

Victor
SV/French Temper

 

[Whatfiero1]

Amazing boat survived you owe it to her to patch up

 

[L27]

This looks like a very doable repair. You'll need to keep digging to clean cement, patch the cement on both sides as needed, repair the rudder shoe (great chance to make sure it is in perfect condition and then make fair the fiberglass and replace gelcoat. It sounds like a lot but as long as you have reasonable access it shouldn't take too long.

think something like this (total each day is < 4 hours):
- day 1: Clean out all old cement, fiberglass and gelcoat. fair fiberglass as prep for later reglassing. Pull rudder shoe
- day 2: replace cement with cement patch. Clean and repair rudder shoe as needed
- day 3: re install rudder shoe, fair cement, lay on fiberglass to proper thickness
- day 4: fair fiberglass, lay on gelcoat,
- day 5: fair gelcoat, lay on barrier coat and bottom paint
note: this might be a time for a full bottom job to gelcoat, in which case day one will be longer as you remove all of the existing bottom paint and any barrier coats on the whole boat and rudder, this will take time but on my Hunter 28 I did it in a single 4 hours of work. The new barrier coat and bottom paint can go on in a single session - keep moving, 3-4 coats barrier coat, 2-3 coats bottom paint as needed and following manufacturers instructions.

It sounds like a lot but if you plan it out and setup a schedule, its totally doable and well worth the effort. You'll learn some new skills (assuming you haven't done this before) and feel a great sense of pride afterwards.

I'm sure others may have a better schedule or even a much improved method for completing the repairs please do as much research as you can before getting started. The above is what I did (without the rudder shoe) but including the complete bottom job, when I needed to do the bottom on my H28. I did it in less than 2 weeks elapsed time and about the same 5 sessions each lasting 2-4 hours.

Good luck and have fun,

Victor
SV/French Temper

Victor, thank you for this. It's the bit of motivation I need to keep moving forward. Your schedule makes a lot of sense.

 

[victorhoisington]

Good luck,

send pictures as you make progress. Its always a good way to document what you have done and a way to ensure you do things right.

Again, Do some research on line - boatworks today is a good reference, and there are lots of others which show various parts of the job.

Oh, and have fun, its work but a fun type of work.