New Rudder

The old rudder was removed by pounding/drilling out the bronze rivets in the pintles and sliding out the rudder and rudderpost. Two screws and two bolts fastened the post to the rudder. The bolts came out easily, but an impact driver was required to remove the screws. The nuts and washers were dug out of the rudder with a chisel.

A new rudder was traced out on 1/2" marine plywood. The size rudder was increased to provide more control and to try to aleviate the weather helm that the Triton tends to have. The tracing was cutout and retraced on the remainder of the 4'x8' sheet of plywood. The two halves were glued together using a waterproof adhesive called Gorilla Glue and then screwed (countersunk) together from both sides.

Using a beltsander, the trailing edge of the new rudder was tapered a bit. The glue lines in the plywood came in handy as a gauge when tapering the edge. The leading edge was also rounded over. We sent the old and new rudders and the rudderpost to a woodworker to cut the semicircular groove which recieves the post and to drill the holes for the bolts and screws.

Once back in the basement, the rudder was covered with a layer of fiber roving and a couple of coats of West System epoxy. After sanding, a few of the low spots were fill with epoxy and West Microlight filler. The rudderpost was attached and the nuts and washers were imbedded in epoxy and West Microlight filler.

The rudder was dry fit and marks for the pintle were made. We over drilled the holes and filled them with epoxy so that when they were drilled to the proper size a strong epoxy bushing was created.