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

The basic shaping is done. Current weight of this white oak core is 69 lbs., which is better than I expected. Hard to guess what the fiberglass will add, but I will be very happy if this much larger rudder blade comes in below 80 lbs. The original rudder is a saturated 75 lbs. Next step is sorting out the area under the brackets followed by drilling and then isolating the holes for the brackets and tiller. I have started coating the very bottom of the rudder with epoxy and will take several steps to armor and seal this area. On the old rudder the bottom leading edge corner showed signs of impact and crushing and was likely the main source of water ingress. This was likely always a weak point in the glass layup because of all the corners and when it was hit it gave way. Beside the oak core being far harder than the balsa core I plan to add a couple of layers of Kevlar felt along the bottom of this rudder. This stuff is crazy strong and resists abrasion extremely well and will be the outermost layer in the laminate.