Straightening a bent rudder post.

[Page 83]

I had though of mounting a kind of flat spoon from the keel to the rudder, but realized that the damaging loads came from the sides rather than always straight ahead. That would have been a very long lever arm, and would fail with less of an impact than the rudder can take.

[chicagocat]

Chris,

This pic isn't real detailed, but gives the general idea...
I might be able to dig up a couple more...

Brendan

Yellow PDQ 2.jpg (100.26 KiB) Viewed 8445 times

[Dan White]

Just got mine back on. It had been bent in 2 planes. Prettiy sure I had snared a submereged crabpot, which in turn got stuck on something like a log.

A nearby marina ( Markley's on Middle River, off the Chesapeake) has a large enough travel lift to hoist our boat. They dropped the rudder and sent it to Miller Island machine. They did a nice job for $240, plus yard labor of $200.

If anybody learns of where to buy those skegs and how to fasten them, I would be interested. Would be nice to put a sharp blade on the forward edge to cut crab lines, seaweed, etc.

[James Power]

Hey Dan, the mould for the skegs, and for that matter all the PDQ 36 moulds were demolished and turned into land fill a couple years back. Not sure why. New skegs can be built from scratch but I don't remember if the 36 used the same rudders for skeg mounting and a free standing balanced? James

[Cat Tales]

Does the skeg need to be moulded fiberglass, or can it be an aluminum or stainless steel piece covered in epoxy?

[Page 83]

The skegs on the 32 were fiberglass, and were glassed onto the hulls. The rudders had no forward balance so the skeg could fit fairly snugly up to the shaft. as a result, more effort was required to steer, but the forces weren't constant, confusing the autopilot.
Catana offered a skeg-like extension in front of the saildrive, which was a large diameter stainless steel pole that ran from a bulkhead in front of the engines down through the hulls. I beleive it met with mixed reviews, and caused one cat to fill with seawater during a rough grounding. Catana's had dagger boards rather than fixed keels, and the rudders and engines were the deepest part of the boat, getting beat up occasionally.

[James Power]

There is no real advantage of adding aluminum or stainless to the mix. An all glass skeg can be made as strong , lighter and not have to worry about corrosion. After a collision, if seawater seeps into the skeg, it turns stagnant and becomes very corrosive. Page 83 brings up a good point, skegged rudders are stronger, but balanced are more efficient. After a rudder is straightened, have a good look at the joint where the stainless shaft enters the frp rudder. Since the 2 materials expand and contract at diffrent rates, have diffrent tensile strengths and are terrible at secondary bonding, it makes a great entrance point for seawater. James