In September 2013 we got Tilly out of the water for what we had hoped would be a few moderate repairs to the underside. We knew we had to change out some through-hulls and seacocks, which we planned to replace with Marelon as we had done on Wotan. We also knew there was a potential rudder foot repair/welding that needed doing.
After we had taken her out of the water and started to chip back paint, and then what transpired to be layers of epoxy filler, it became apparent that we had a lot more underwater metal work to fix. Eventually the rudder needed to be removed, because the coupling at the top had corroded and needed replacing. In the investigation of how to remove the coupling, we discovered the entire rudder was water logged and mostly rotten.
What had begun as a minor job was turning into a major job, something we hadn't budgeted for in time or money, and unfortunately that meant taking things into our own hands and building a rudder.
What I didn't know at the time was that I was pregnant with Aneurin, perhaps that nesting instinct went into overdrive! I'm not sure what else would have propelled me into rudder building mode!
The first job was to try and deconstruct the rudder to determine how it was made, assess the damage and understand whether we could patch it up, or had to remake the whole thing. This is what we found:
The wood was rotten and broke away in our hands, the only solid bits remaining were the foam and the metal core.
Our friend Patrick helped us with the deconstruction and a bit of the build. Thanks Patrick!
During the deconstruction we were able to see how the rudder was made, this one has a metal core plate, and stock, with ply bolted onto it, wooden batons to shape it and foam, all covered in fibreglass.
Here we are re-building to the same construction, using the fibreglass outer shell we cut off as a template for the new ply panels to bolt to the plate and stock.
The plate and stock had been sent off to the fabricators, BD Marine (who have helped us with various projects and are always great to work with) and delivered back to us with a new coupling and painted.
After we fitted the ply panels to the plate and stock we started to add the batons for shape, inbetween which we would then foam...
On top of the batons we added a thin layer of veneer over the batons, then we drilled holes in the veneer and pumped the expanding foam in. We then waited for the foam to dry and cut the edges to shape and neatened it.
After that it got covered in a few layers of chopped strand cloth with polyester resin, followed by mat and epoxy resin and more epoxy resin. We also used some epoxy filler to smooth and shape to finish. We got all our supplies from Portsmouth Fibreglass Centre who are well priced and easy to deal with.
Here's what we ended up with:
Now, you might be wondering how we got a 2m high rudder which weighs in excess of 150kg back into position... it isn't the easiest thing to just pop back on the boat. We'd taken the rudder off Wotan before to replacing the bearings, but this was not on the same scale at all! We enlisted the help of some other friends, Dan, Claire and Jim who helped us figure out how and do the job. Turns out that winches are good for numerous things, not just sails! Claire and I winched that rudder up using the winches on each side, bit by bit, whilst the guys directed it and got it bolted in place. I'm truly amazed it worked, but so glad it did. Thanks to Dan, Claire and Jim who helped.
Here's the final painted rudder in place:
The job cost us around £400 in materials, labour was free but hard - it took us about 4 man days to deconstruct, 10-12 man days to reconstruct the wood - which included some epoxying between layers of wood to ensure max waterproofing, 4 man days to foam, 10 man days to epoxy and finish. In-between there was waiting for hardening and drying, cutting, building, swearing!
Thanks also to Jim and Rose, Duncan's parents, who helped with keeping Elizabeth entertained through a lot of the weekends we had to work on getting Tilly back in the water.
Finally in February 2014 she was back in and we moved on.
After we had taken her out of the water and started to chip back paint, and then what transpired to be layers of epoxy filler, it became apparent that we had a lot more underwater metal work to fix. Eventually the rudder needed to be removed, because the coupling at the top had corroded and needed replacing. In the investigation of how to remove the coupling, we discovered the entire rudder was water logged and mostly rotten.
What had begun as a minor job was turning into a major job, something we hadn't budgeted for in time or money, and unfortunately that meant taking things into our own hands and building a rudder.
What I didn't know at the time was that I was pregnant with Aneurin, perhaps that nesting instinct went into overdrive! I'm not sure what else would have propelled me into rudder building mode!
The first job was to try and deconstruct the rudder to determine how it was made, assess the damage and understand whether we could patch it up, or had to remake the whole thing. This is what we found:
The wood was rotten and broke away in our hands, the only solid bits remaining were the foam and the metal core.
Our friend Patrick helped us with the deconstruction and a bit of the build. Thanks Patrick!
During the deconstruction we were able to see how the rudder was made, this one has a metal core plate, and stock, with ply bolted onto it, wooden batons to shape it and foam, all covered in fibreglass.
Here we are re-building to the same construction, using the fibreglass outer shell we cut off as a template for the new ply panels to bolt to the plate and stock.
The plate and stock had been sent off to the fabricators, BD Marine (who have helped us with various projects and are always great to work with) and delivered back to us with a new coupling and painted.
After we fitted the ply panels to the plate and stock we started to add the batons for shape, inbetween which we would then foam...
On top of the batons we added a thin layer of veneer over the batons, then we drilled holes in the veneer and pumped the expanding foam in. We then waited for the foam to dry and cut the edges to shape and neatened it.
After that it got covered in a few layers of chopped strand cloth with polyester resin, followed by mat and epoxy resin and more epoxy resin. We also used some epoxy filler to smooth and shape to finish. We got all our supplies from Portsmouth Fibreglass Centre who are well priced and easy to deal with.
Here's what we ended up with:
Now, you might be wondering how we got a 2m high rudder which weighs in excess of 150kg back into position... it isn't the easiest thing to just pop back on the boat. We'd taken the rudder off Wotan before to replacing the bearings, but this was not on the same scale at all! We enlisted the help of some other friends, Dan, Claire and Jim who helped us figure out how and do the job. Turns out that winches are good for numerous things, not just sails! Claire and I winched that rudder up using the winches on each side, bit by bit, whilst the guys directed it and got it bolted in place. I'm truly amazed it worked, but so glad it did. Thanks to Dan, Claire and Jim who helped.
Here's the final painted rudder in place:
The job cost us around £400 in materials, labour was free but hard - it took us about 4 man days to deconstruct, 10-12 man days to reconstruct the wood - which included some epoxying between layers of wood to ensure max waterproofing, 4 man days to foam, 10 man days to epoxy and finish. In-between there was waiting for hardening and drying, cutting, building, swearing!
Thanks also to Jim and Rose, Duncan's parents, who helped with keeping Elizabeth entertained through a lot of the weekends we had to work on getting Tilly back in the water.
Finally in February 2014 she was back in and we moved on.