Rudder Stress Cracks?

[Carl]

I have 1978 Hunter 30 and after pulling it out of the water I noticed a crack on each side of the fixed part of the rudder assembly. Does anyone know what would be the best way to repair this? Thanks for any help

 

[lugeman]

Fixed part?

Which part of the rudder? Post? or the blade itself? I started by tapping up and down the blade listening for hollow or changes in sound. I had some surface cracking that i sanded down, built up with a few coats of epoxy, barrier coated and painted a few seasons ago. This year when hauling a heard a change in the sound near the bottom. Drilled a smallhole and about 1/2 gal, of water came out. After talking with some of the guys at Torrensens, put 2 more small holes to drain water. They advised me to let drain and dry over the winter and fill, paint in spring. Not hard at all. Pray for Wind, Lugeman

 

[Hunter voyager]

rudder repair

The rudder on my '83 34 was also cracked in several places both sides. I removed all the paint, ground out the cracks down to the foam inside, sanded down the surface and drilled some 1/4 inch holes in the bottom of the rudder and left it for the winter to dry out.I then filled the cracks with body filler then coated the rudder with 2 layers of 1 1/2 oz glass mat and polyester resin. I then put on 5 coats of epoxy resin and finally a coat of antifouling.

 

[Todd]

rudder repair

The rudder was delamimating in a couple of places. The old owner seemed to have used body filler to repair something. We are removing all bottom paint and starting with interprotect 2000 in the spring before launch. The rudder problems didn't seem to bad until we started to remove the half inch of paint that was hiding everything, now the repair is pretty much a must.