Rudder rebuild and install

[HankPhillips]

Hi, new here and enjoying reading through all of the threads. We're restoring a 1965 Jensen Marine 24.5. It had been sunk 3 times and was in horrible shape. The old rudder shaft had given up the ghost and the rudder was shot. We can't find any parts for this old boat and so built a new one ourselves. We'll be installing it tomorrow on my neighbors boat lift, will post pics later. The rudder was easier than I thought it would be. So far the boats been cleaned, new tiller, cabin handholds, wiring (new panel, wires.and switches), new running rigging, bilge pump installed etc...whew.

 

[HankPhillips]

Pics coming up

 

[Merlin Clark]

Good job Hank! Looks great.
Glad to see you have a helper, or is that the supervisor?

A description of how you made the new rudder might help some folks here with the same problem.

 

[tommays]

very nice work

 

[HankPhillips]

That's the supervisor. I used the old shaft for measuring the spacing and fabbed the new shaft out of 316 stainless...along with the splines. Machined the bottom for the bearing insert and the keyway for the tiller mount.
I used the old blade for a template and started with marine plywood. Layed up both sides with 3 layers of ten ounce glass. Next, I sandwiched them together around the splines and filled with expoxy and clamped.
After 2 days I removed the clamps and filled the edges. I then scuffed the shaft where the rudder wraps around and primered it wle epoxy primer, scuffing it between coats.
I then cut into the glass on the blade and wrapped the shaft with 2 layers of 30 oz glass. After sanding, I faired it with epoxy and finished shaping. I finished it up with 2 coats of gelcoat and 3 coats of bottom paint.
Not really a difficult job, the most time spent really was waiting for everything to dry. Thanks for being interested. She slipped right in today, just one more thing out of the way. It might have been easier on the hard instead of a boat lift though.

 

[Merlin Clark]

That should last longer than the original!
Cool boat.

 

[HankPhillips]

It might, wait until I redo a poor repair on the bottom from the previous owner.