3217Hrs – Rudders Assembled

This morning I got a comment from Olivier in Geneva who’d spotted that I’d glued the rudder sections together without making any allowance for a scarf joint between the main sections and the rudder heads.

Well spotted Olivier, thanks! I’m pretty sure I’d have realised my mistake when I started work this morning but it’s comforting to know that I have you guys looking over my shoulder as well.

So first job was to correct this error, which meant cutting through one of the 18mm laminated sheets where I wanted the joint and then splitting the two sections apart.

It’s actually quite reassuring to try and split some epoxied joints apart now and again because it removes any doubt about the strength. I managed it but it wasn’t the epoxy that gave way it was the ply.

Anyway after cleaning up with a chisel and sander I got the joints I needed all ready to glue. As you can see, the joint is actually lapped rather than scarfed.

Next job was to cut the four 9mm plywood cheeks that sit either side of the rudder stock and add extra strength to the lapped joints in the main 18mm sections.

All fairly straightforward and once done all that remained was to glue everything together. Tomorrow I’ll remove the screws,clean up, fill any holes and then start thinking about machining the hinge points. That’ll require some serious concentration and care.

Eagle-eyed readers may notice a thin piece of 18mm epoxied into the aft edge of the left hand rudder. This is to fill in a small undercut that dates back to when I cut the pieces out of the full sheets of ply. I got the positioning wrong and two of the pieces overhung the edge of the sheets slightly. Just another example of the wonderful cock-up rectification benefits of using timber and epoxy to build a boat 🙂