Wood Rudder

[mbravocojr]

I have a '66 Pearson Vanguard with a Mahogany rudder. Having sanded the bottom, I'm getting ready to apply an epoxy barrier coat and paint. Concerning the rudder, the wood is solid. It gives a nice high pitch when struck. Overall it seems to be in good condition, however there are numerous gaps in the wood. I am wondering if I should be doing anything in regards to filling the gaps before applying the multiple coats of epoxy barrier and paint. Some people I've spoken with say not to do anything extra, where others have recommended to encase the rudder in fiberglass. What's the popular opinion? I don't think I'll be glassing the rudder this time around, but should I be addressing the gaps in the wood with some type of filler?

I had trouble attaching photos due to the file size and photo dimensions, so I have uploaded them to this link:https://imgur.com/a/u4Rj2it.

[CharlieJ]

Iff it were my boat ,I'd take the opportunity right now to glass that rudder. It's out of water, dry and looks iffy to me. The consequences of it coming apart under sail are not worth the chance you take.

The Vanguard is a great solid boat- I have a plug sitting right in front of me from the hull of one I redid the galley in for a customer- it's right at one inch thick !!

[atomvoyager]

I would also put at least one layer of medium weight glass cloth on the rudder now while it is dry and still mostly intact. I built the first new wood rudder for my boat many years ago and left it unglassed and the teredo worms riddled it within two years in Florida and Caribbean. Aside from strengthening it, the glass and epoxy should resist present and future cracks that allow worms to get in or corrosion to fasteners and pins. The second rudder I built in glass covered ply and is still holding up 30 years later. A couple years ago I ground into it to repair some minor rot around fasteners and to inspect it. There were no worms evident at least.

[svMira]

Those rudders are solid wood stacked on long bolts I think, at least my Wanderer has the same idea. Not quite as hefty looking as yours and not nearly as pretty mahogany, but the same idea. Mine had been on the hard for 6+ years and had pretty good gaps between the planks. I had considered glassing mine before I launched, but I couldn't imagine the movement in those gaps after glassing and guessing the whole thing picked up some structural rigidity from being tight once swelled. I can totally imagine glassing up a new plywood rudder, but how much is glass going to do anything to a moving solid wood rudder other that keep it from being able to dry out once on the hard?
Not trying to be smarmy. I've got the same rudder, so I've got a vested interested in getting it right. It just feels like new wine in old wineskins to glass the old one over.

[atomvoyager]

Marvin
I understand your point, which is commonly held among wooden boat owners. And the rudder has lasted this long unglassed, so there's that. The good thing about a forum is you can get a variety of ideas. We can then each choose what makes sense for our situation.

[mbravocojr]

Thanks for the input all around. Its greatly appreciated.

Please forgive my ignorance as a lot of this I am learning on the fly.

Since I will be applying multiple coats of epoxy barrier and paint shouldn't that be enough to seal and protect the rudder from water, worms, and the like?

One guy here(Bill) glassed the rudder on his Triton. He mentioned that when he went in the water his rudder expanded and cracked the glass. I'm guessing this isn't much of a concern if it should happen, but it just doesn't sound nice to me.

[atomvoyager]

As Marvin pointed out there's a school of thought that it's best not to encapsulate the wood in glass so maybe you won't go wrong by leaving it as is. If you epoxy fill the gaps then it will probably just crack again. If you glassed it with just one layer then there's a chance you might get a small crack somewhere when the wood swells but you're no worse then not glassing at all. Or put on 2-3 layers and that should stop it cracking. As I mentioned before, my main concern was keeping out the worms that quickly destroyed my earlier unglassed rudder. If that's not a concern for you or you have some other plan to prevent worms such as relying on epoxy resin and/or antifouling to repel worms then it's up to you. If the unglassed wood expands and contracts then it breaks the paint or epoxy seal and you won't get worm protection. My worms may have come in when I grounded or careened for painting and the coatings were broken through in some spot or through cracks in the planks and paint.

Maybe the boats up north that might be in worm-free waters and spend half of every year hauled out do best with unglassed rudders. But since I spend three to five years between haulouts and then only briefly out I like having it glassed.

I also spoke to Bill who had a small crack in the glass on the trailing edge of his Triton rudder some years ago. He had only one layer on and said that he might have sanded through most of the glass in that one spot. In any case he reglassed it with a couple more layers and no problems in recent years.

If you're looking for a consensus opinion on this you won't find it. You might ask on the wooden boat forum since my knowledge on this is limited.

[mbravocojr]

Thanks again! I have a much better understanding for both schools of thought.

I took a walk by Bill's boat today with specific attention to the rudder. It looks good. There's just a small crack at the top by the rudder post. He explained to me the other cracks he had on the aft end and the work he did to rectify it. It wasn't bad at all.

I've decided to glass my rudder. I'm heading into tropical waters long term. I don't have interest in hauling every so often strictly to maintain the wood.

[svMira]

And thanks for pointing out the different contexts, yearly haul-outs vs tropical long stints in the water. I didn't think of that. I'm beside freshwater and a minimum windchill temp of -47C so far this winter. <grin> My 30 footer is in my driveway beside my car, frozen solid.