When preparing my '88 26.5 Hunter for the water this spring I noticed some delamination on one side of the rudder. Now that we will be pulling her out later this fall I want to repair it while on the hard. My research this far leads me to believe the delamination was caused by heat induced gasing of the core foam. I believe the rudder was made by Foss Foam and they warn about painting their rudders the lovely dark blue that I've used for several years. Repairs I've read about range from drilling and filling with epoxy (my first choice) to cutting out the delaminated area and reglassing. My first thought is to drill a small inspection hole towards the bottom of the delaminated area, check for moisture and integrity of core foam and then pump in epoxy. Any suggestions based on your experience are welcome. Regards, Glenn WindWisp
Rudder Delamination Repair
- Thread starter Glenn Bollin
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As with most things...
... regarding our boats, "it all depends." If your (presumably Foss Foam) rudder is "not too badly delaminated" (however defined), you may want to do what I did with the Foss Foam rudder on my 1986 H28.5: tap the rudder with a plastic (phenolic) hammer or screw driver handle and try to get a sense of the length and breadth of the delam. Mark it off. Drill a pattern of 3/8 inch holes about an inch apart from one another and about 1 and half inches deep (make a jig). Buy some West System or similar epoxy and syringes. Squirt the epoxy in. In my case, I thickend it just a bit with micro-balloons. Buy the fast setting catalyst for the epoxy. I was able to fill the holes almost to the surface. When it hardened I came back and filled the little indentations with Marine Tex. I then sanded the whole rudder down and put a coat of epoxy over the whole thing, sanded it and bottom painted it with Interlux CSC -- Shark White. I've had no problem with it since. If your rudder is more seriouly delaminated, you may need to do a whole rudder rebuild. There is a great article on the Hunter 28.5 website by Jay Grizzell (http://www.huntertwentyeightfive.com/rudder.html)about how to do this.
... regarding our boats, "it all depends." If your (presumably Foss Foam) rudder is "not too badly delaminated" (however defined), you may want to do what I did with the Foss Foam rudder on my 1986 H28.5: tap the rudder with a plastic (phenolic) hammer or screw driver handle and try to get a sense of the length and breadth of the delam. Mark it off. Drill a pattern of 3/8 inch holes about an inch apart from one another and about 1 and half inches deep (make a jig). Buy some West System or similar epoxy and syringes. Squirt the epoxy in. In my case, I thickend it just a bit with micro-balloons. Buy the fast setting catalyst for the epoxy. I was able to fill the holes almost to the surface. When it hardened I came back and filled the little indentations with Marine Tex. I then sanded the whole rudder down and put a coat of epoxy over the whole thing, sanded it and bottom painted it with Interlux CSC -- Shark White. I've had no problem with it since. If your rudder is more seriouly delaminated, you may need to do a whole rudder rebuild. There is a great article on the Hunter 28.5 website by Jay Grizzell (http://www.huntertwentyeightfive.com/rudder.html)about how to do this.
Warren, thanks for the response
Appreciate the advice. After haul out(mid October)I'll have a better idea of the size and shape of the problem. Hope for some good sailing until then. Glenn WindWisp
Appreciate the advice. After haul out(mid October)I'll have a better idea of the size and shape of the problem. Hope for some good sailing until then. Glenn WindWisp
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