I have decided to try to fix my RudderCraft rudder blade which was pretty seriously bent and twisted after I carelessly left it in the down position after a sail. It stuck in the mud when the tide went out, and after several days of the tide’s cycles, it bent it all out of shape. Plus, the stainless rudder cheeks were coming apart at the welds, so I wanted to address that as well. I’m happy to put off spending over $900 on a replacement rudder if at all possible!
First, I removed the blade from the rudder head. After loosening the machine screws holding on the gas piston, I used a length of wood to pull down and physically compress the piston until it provided just enough slack to pull out the machine screws. I then removed the large pivot bolt and the blade came off without any trouble. I brought the rudder head to a welder, and in a short amount of time he rewelded all the seams which should hopefully make it as strong as ever.
The splitting weld.
The new repair.
Next, I took some of the rusty hardware - the pivot bolt with its washer and nut and machine screws from the blade - and attempted to clean them up with Spotless Stainless. I really like that product, but the container I have in my basement is at least a year old, and I suspected it might loose some of its potency. Nevertheless, I gave it a shot, but I was right - it didn’t clean it up as much as I had hoped. And, upon further inspection, I saw there were some damaged threads on the pivot bolt and one of the machine screws, so I have decided to purchase new hardware.
The rusty pivot bolt.
Soaking in Spotless Stainless.
Mediocre results.
Damaged threads.
Finally, over the course of several days, I spent a lot of time bending and twisting the rudder blade to get it back into shape. I first suspended it between two sawhorses with wooden wedges to keep it from rocking around, and then I put a heavy object (yes, it’s a bucket of cat litter) in the middle of the bend. I put a space heater underneath for a few hours to soften the plastic some, and once the bend in the blade started to bow in the opposite direction, I shut off the heater but kept the bucket on it overnight. Remarkably, the blade wanted to bend back up to its original crooked position, but after a few more sessions of using heat for a few hours and keeping the bucket on top of it overnight, it is now pretty darn straight and has stayed that way!
Using the box of litter to bend the blade.
Bending in the opposite direction.
After the blade was straight, I realized the entire blade had bent where it had attached to the rudder head. I clamped the blade in a vice on my shop table and used wooden blocks and wedges to push the blade a little off center the other way, again using heat from heat lamps to soften the plastic near the head of the blade. I had to move the blocks and wedges around periodically to find the best place for leverage, but after several hours of heat and staying wedged overnight, the blade is now almost perfectly true.
Clamped in a vice with heat lamps on it.
So, now the blade is straight again, and I think it looks pretty good! The next steps are:
Replace the hardware
Get a new line that pulls the blade up and down
Get fresh Spotless Stainless and clean the rudder head
Clean up the blade itself
Put everything back together
I’m making progress!
Wooden blocks and a shim pushing it the other way.
A heck of a lot straighter than it was before! I'll take it!