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Emergency Rudder Ideas

I have Alan's "first?" E-rudder that I took along on the 2010 PacCup. I could part with it. Right now it's set up for a Wyliecat with an outboard 2" x 2" receiver at the bottom and a plywood brace at the top. I have Alan's original metal parts as well. Email me directly; don't use the SSS notification. broderic at sonic dot net
 
Egad!!! Is that the freaking enormous one that's six and a half feet long and weighs about 90 pounds? Probably not. That's probably the unit I took to Hawaii.

That was fun to make, laminating the doorskins to make a cassette around an extremely low-tech rudder.

Pat, do you have pictures? They might instill a dose of budget-conscious reality into this conversation. I mean, if someones goal is to win the thing, and they have $$ to burn or serious composite skills, then by all means build / buy a killer carbon composite e-rudder.

My goals were:
1. to finish
2. to finish with a smile on my face (not freaking miserable)
3. to not be last

For that, I needed a rudder that would steer the boat and would be able to do so for several days via the autopilot. That doesn't take $3,000.
 
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If you don't want to spend time gluing up all that wood, and you have a 20-26 footer, you can just buy a 5-6 foot long 2 x 12. Understand that over time, it will probably warp and distort, but how long does it have to last you? Buy GOOD doug fir lumber for this.... not Home Depot, and not wet crap that's gonna check something awful. Pay for a decent slice of wood. Get out the hand power plane and start shaping. Get as close to NACA 0012 as you can in the bottom 5/8ths. Sand it smooth. Paint it a few times with epoxy. If you're really into it, cover it with a layer of carbon in epoxy. Then paint it with an epoxy colored paint. Put on some pintles with 1 1/2 inch pins. Figure out a tiller arrangement. DONE.

If you want it to last forever, then buy a 6 foot long piece of two-inch thick HDPE. Say....6 feet long - 14 or 16 inches wide and 2 inches thick. There are a dozen places in the Bay Area with CNC routers that can turn that thing into a lovely NACA foil. If you have a buddy with a Tech Shop membership, a few of them have CNC machines that will do it. HDPE will never finish up as smooth as 'glass or even wood but it can be a good shape. HDPE is a bit flexible, I wouldn't choose it for a racing rudder but for a get-home emergency rudder that will sure as hell beat a board in the water, sure. Why not?

Rudder Craft sells HDPE rudders. A perfectly reasonable HDPE rudder with a 14 inch chord for my 26 footer is about $600.
 
There were a couple of options at the pelican recently, hiding in the corner by the nuts and bolts. One was a homemade e-rudder, foam and carbon, rough but cheap. The other looked like a transom hung rudder from a Cat. 25.
I may take a second look.
 
E-Rudder.jpg

There's a laminated marine ply and epoxy e-rudder blade on the bottom of page 2 in the For Sale Section.
 
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I'd like to clarify that all my yammering on about emergency rudders applies to smaller boats. If you have a 35-40 footer, then the problem is very, very different.
 
AlanH said:
I'd like to clarify that all my yammering on about emergency rudders applies to smaller boats. If you have a 35-40 footer, then the problem is very, very different.
Click to expand...

Just because I was curious, I called up three East Bay CNC shops and asked them what it would cost to take a laminated wood plug and turn it into a rudder-shape. Upshot is, go to Phils Foils. They can't compete with these guys, who are set up specifically to generate such stuff.

This is if you want a wood-core rudder, CNC cut to a really accurate foil.
 
AlanH said:
I'd like to clarify that all my yammering on about emergency rudders applies to smaller boats. If you have a 35-40 footer, then the problem is very, very different.
Click to expand...

Bad Bunny, my Hobie 33, is 33 feet long but is very light, only 4000lbs. I'm not looking for a long term solution that will last years but I also don't want to get the San Francisco and a judge to tell me "Sorry, you can't race because of...". I'm hauling my Hobie 33 from Charlotte NC and don't want any surprises I can't overcome in a very quick period.
 
Alan, Here are two of your original photos. I've modified the mounting system for my outboard powered Wyliecat. The engine mount uses 2X2 aluminum that fits into a receiver built into the transom. I fabricated an "L" shaped 2X2 bracket that fits into the receiver at the bottom. About 3/4 of the way up, I have a plywood spacer that acts as a compression post against the bracket and the base of the rudder post fitting. I use high tech line from the top of the "L" shaped bracket to the rear mooring cleats to lock it in. That puts the cassette about 6" above the waterline. I use more high tech line from the top after end of the rudder thru turning blocks on the coaming and to tiller. It works, but the way it's rigged, turning the till to port steers you to port - you just have to remember. Worked fine when testing it in the Bay. Luckily we didn't have to test it on the way to Hawaii! I could be convince to sell it since I don't plan any more Hawaii adventures. -- Pat

E Rudder #1.jpgE Rudder #2.jpg
 
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I've been trying to decide the method to to mount the e-rudder on the boat, cassette, gudgeons/pintles, etc. Cassette seems like lots of work, but nails the deployment issue. Looking for other ideas, and sketched up the attached. I would like to hear from folks who have needed to actually deploy an e-rudder, if the sketch has any merit.
View attachment Rudder.bracket.pdf
 
Chris was showing me his recently-acquired carbon e-rudder today and I suggested it might be time to schedule another one of these:

http://sfbaysss.org/main/emergency-rudder-show-n-tell/

How about this May? That gives you three months to build or buy something and get it fitted, and it will still be a couple of months before LongPac.

Here are some photos and comments from the show-and-tell (and race) two years ago:

http://sfbaysss.org/forum/showthread.php?1449-Emergency-Rudders-May-16-Richmond-Yacht-Club&p=11149#post11149
.
 
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What with contemplating making a wood core rudder from stacked, glued wood 2 x 2's and then shaping with a router and a template, I've also been considering how I could use this technique to crank out a decent e-rudder. I strongly doubt that it will be ready by may, though.
 
BobJ said:
Chris was showing me his recently-acquired carbon e-rudder today and I suggested it might be time to schedule another one of these:

http://sfbaysss.org/main/emergency-rudder-show-n-tell/

How about this May? That gives you three months to build or buy something and get it fitted, and it will still be a couple of months before LongPac.

Here are some photos and comments from the show-and-tell (and race) two years ago:

http://sfbaysss.org/forum/showthread.php?1449-Emergency-Rudders-May-16-Richmond-Yacht-Club&p=11149#post11149
.
Click to expand...

I'd really like to take part in that race...

IMG_0108_1-e1463362580561.jpg
 
I've heard back from a guy in Texas who has a CAD controlled hotwire foam cutter. He can cut high density expanded polystyrene foam foils to use in laminating e-rudders. This is heavier and stronger stuff than what Flying Foam offers, now. He makes pretty big foam model airplane wings...like BIG model airplanes so I expect that he can crank out 6 foot long foils. Not sure on price but probably somewhere between $30-50 per foil.

Is anybody interested in purchasing a foil to laminate up their own e-rudder?
 
On the Bear Boat swing down rudder, it would seem to me that between the time that the rudder tip hits the water and the bottom bracket is pinned there could be a lot of torque on the weld at the gudgeon/pintle bar and the tubes running back to the transom? Did this pass an install test in some waves?
 
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