Building a New Rudder

[Triton 185]

Hello....I am looking at rebuilding my Triton's rudder. It has worm holes in her and is missing a large piece in the lower section. I was thinking of making one out of plywood and epoxy then glassing it, but I'm not sure if this is the way I should go. I have some good Honduras Mahogany in the shop I could use (and the plywood too).

The other consideration is the rudder shape. Is there any advantage to changing the rudder shape from the rounder original shape to the MK II shape that has a fuller lower section.

Any thoughts on these considerations?

Thanks again,

Stephen Triton #185

[jollyboat]

Stephen,
Last winter found time to rebuild the rudder on 466 which was also in very poor shape. After removing the rudder from the boat, it was disassembled and the various pieces, sanded, and prepaired for epoxy repairs and rebuild. The rudder was also missing material in several areas and mahogony was expoxy and clamped into place where needed. After the epoxy curred, the blade was refaired to shape. (both rudders on 346 and 466 were made of mahogany, but do not know if all Triton rudders were made of mahognay). All of the bronze drift pins and screws were replaced. Though reassembled in the original mannor, because of the use of expoxy between the boards, the mahogany would not be able to freely swell and on the it's drift pins as originally designed and so the entire rudder was encapsolated in expoxy to keep the wood dry. The rudder has been under water for a year now - so far so good.

[bcooke]

My late model Triton (#680) has a plywood encapsulated rudder. I would guess that plywood is marginally better but the original mahogony rudders work fine too. They just tend to look bad when they dry out and shrink.

I haven't really heard if the Mk II rudder is really any better. I think Carl created the Mk II drawing after production ceased or something like that. If Carl made the change he probably had a good reason for it.

More is better... right?

-Britton