The rudder on a yacht is the most important device. It’s a truism but we are still surprised sometimes by the lousiness of the installation of some rudder fins. In this case, the yacht would probably have sailed happily ever after if it hadn’t hit something underwater. The unwholesome hit and the rudder snapped, cracking at the joint of the two halves from which it was made in the shipyard. The fin was joined to the stem by 4 flat bars 2mm thick welded 20mm wide with one weld each.
We made a new rudder. Four stainless steel ribs with drilled holes for the stem and link were fillet welded on both sides. Then, using PU foam, we made the shape of the rudder with the thickness of the laminate reduced. We did the lamination in 4 steps taking care to maintain the proper overlaps and offsets. In addition, on the upper edge of the rudder (the one parallel to the bottom) we laminated a strip so that the sharply finished edge of the rudder did not consist only of putty tending to peel off in the future. Puttying and finishing w-with epoxy paint will protect the laminate for years. The new rudder despite being half as light will be stronger than the old one.
