J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Rudder(s)

The NACA0012 foil is taking shape nicely. I'm not rushing this project and this is a slow process. I want it to have the correct shape and dimensions and that is still another day away. I have been using my power planer more than I ever have for any other project that I have done before. It is the right tool to hog a lot of material away, but it is not in the least bit precise. The router sled is accurate, but slow. I have decided that working the nose section with a hand plane and the belt sander is a good solution to getting that part of the profile sorted. Once the router bit is within about 2-1/2" of the nose the whole setup gets dicey.

Currently the width of the entire blank is now 19-1/2" and the target is 18-1/2", so that little bit of profile line you see in this image still needs to be milled away.`



Once I hit the target width I will start marking the blank up for the cuts to remove 2-1/2" to match the top part of the standard rudder and then mill the relief for the the gudgeon straps.