I have a Coaster that I took down the ICW, just into Florida and back from NYC. In prepping, I hauled for almost a year and the rudder separated into its individual component boards. Eventually, the boards were so dried out that they had almost half inch gaps. I decided to build a new one. It was not actually difficult, though it took time. It took about six days, two to three hours at a whack. I ordered quarter sawn mahogany, 1 1/4" x 7" (that's from memory--measure eight times and cut once) and used the old boards as a template. I ordered new silicon bronze rods for pins from McMaster Carr--inexpensive and really worked well. I cut the boards with a bosch saber saw--the lumber yard, Condon's, milled the edges perfectly so I didn't need to worry about that. The leading edge boards are through bolted to the bronze rudder shaft. The bolts fit on easily--I used bar soap to lubricate the holes. The trailing edge boards are pinned with bronze rods set at skewed angles. The entire rudder was hand planed to shape with a low angle block plane--I'm glad I used that because it made me work slowly. No quick screw ups. The only really specialized equipment I used was a large router bit to make the planks fit the rudder shaft, a concave half round. You need a biggish router, one that takes a 1/2" shaft, but I had one. In any event, you can certainly borrow one for the ten minutes it takes to make the route. I did also purchase a long drill bit for the bronze pins and bolts. I do not own a large drill press, so I eyeballed the pin holes and that turned out just fine. I figured out where I wanted the holes to end up and drew pencil lines from hole to hole. Where the holes didn't align perfectly, planing afterward made the surface fair. I reused the original rudder shaft, though there was some sign of electrolysis--the metal was a little pink here and there. But it's a huge cross section and I decided to take my chances. I don't know where I would begin to have that piece fabricated. I also reused the long bronze bolts that attached the planks to the shaft--those I inspected and found to be in good shape, even after thirty years. There were some holes on the trailing edge of the rudder for the bronze pins. I was able to make mahogany dowels by drilling through some 1/4 aluminum plating and hammering square pins through the drilled holes. These dowels fit tight inside the end of the rudder, where I cut them off and planed them to shape. I never glued them and they have stayed tight; you can't see them unless you're looking for them. As to the old wood, it was in pretty good shape too, except where a previous owner had bolted a zinc directly to the wood. There the wood was kind of punky. The rest of the rudder was otherwise ok, and it's possible the rudder would have been ok. But it really shrank a lot in the winter. Now, it doesn't shrink at all, except for the bottom of the seam at the last plank. It opens up about 1/16" for about 1/2" I did not seal the wood with epoxy, counting on it's immersion in salt water to prevent rot. I painted it with oil based paint and then put on bottom paint. (it killed me to cover over that nice looking mahogany.) I've had the boat out in over 25 knots a few times since then, once in eight foot breaking seas, and I'm always glad I rebuilt the rudder. It was simple, if somewhat time consuming, and I know it's good. I did screw up one thing, though. When I recreated the old rudder by tracing the old planks, I didn't take into account that the rudder had settled a little. Now the shaft is not completely parallel to the hull; there's a bigger gap between the shaft and hull at the center, near where the prop comes into the bight, than at the top and bottom of the rudder. With a little thought, I could have eliminated that, which may eventually cause a little uneven wear and which doesn't look particularly like a new piece. But it's not significant, I think. I put out a call for advice when I was thinking of the project and most people said sandwich it in ply or sheath it with epoxy and glass. But epoxy won't help the strength--you need to absolutely seal the wood, because if it gets wet it expands and breaks the glass. Thin plywood sheathing, I decided, is just thin plywood and still leaves the rudder shaft bolts more or less rattling around in the old wood. And thin plywood would still create extra drag, and who wants to sail slow? I think the Coaster is a good light airs boat... And a mahogany rudder has floatation to counter balance the bronze shaft, so the rudder has neutral, or close to neutral, buoyancy. No one recommended rebuilding the rudder the way I did, but I'm glad I did, and I don't think it's any harder to do a good job that way than by other methods, though other methods may be more familiar. The wood cost about $270, the bronze pins under $30 delivered, and the router bit close to $70 (Western Tool). This is 2004 dollars. The drill bit was probably another $30 and the filler to close the access holes for the bronze nuts was donated by the yard, who just loved seeing all that nice mahogany. It's been on the boat for about three years now and it still looks new. Ish. Duncan Raymond Comet, Coaster hull 116 City Islad, NY
