Rudder repair

[Waitoa]

Folks, I have a philip rhodes 1967 40' sloop built by Choi Lee in HK. Steering unit all operating above the water but the rudder is not responding . Any ideas on how the rudder stock is attached. I can manually move the rudder underwater so hoping there is a connection Steve or similar

Any suggestions welcome

[Searles]

I have a cheoy lee Perry 48 ,have removed the grp skin on one side the foam filling was saturated with salt water ,after scraping all the glunk out to a clean rudderstock and palms ,the palms are welded to the solid rudder stock with no signes of rust ,interestingly all the metal which apears to be a type of stainless is totally non magnetic ,the palms were all glassed to the skin and had large holes through them to allow the liquid foam to flow all through the blade .I would quest if the stock is intact that the palms have broken away ,in maybe possible to reweld them by removing the fwd edge of the blade to expose the area,my rudder stock is all one piece top to bottom no joins ,there maybe drawings available to show the construction used .good luck .⚓️⛵️

[mike d.]

If you move the rudder underwater is the wheel/tiller moving ? Check your cables/quadrant ! If not that the tangs inside the rudder have separated from the rudder stock ! The only fix is to remove the rudder and stock as unit, and then cut the rudder skin open along the perimeter edges and removed the skin in 1 piece if you can, get the foam out, have the tangs repaired then go the other way replace the foam, and then the skin, then re-glass the edges !

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by mike d.

If you move the rudder underwater is the wheel/tiller moving ? Check your cables/quadrant ! If not that the tangs inside the rudder have separated from the rudder stock ! The only fix is to remove the rudder and stock as unit, and then cut the rudder skin open along the perimeter edges and removed the skin in 1 piece if you can, get the foam out, have the tangs repaired then go the other way replace the foam, and then the skin, then re-glass the edges !

mike d., you're probably right.
I'm not 100% sure, but on some boats like the OPs, the shaft ends right where the cut-out for the prop aperture starts.
So the connection between shaft and rudder is small and only at the top.
On that style there is generally a short shaft section at the bottom just to engage the heel fitting.
I'd be surprised if the shaft was a long length of metal, (steering gear to heel fitting in one length,) that was shaped to go around the prop aperture.
But, Cheoy Lee did have that capability to form metal.

[nuku34]

I had exactly the OP's problem on a Rawson 30 fibreglass sloop back in 19882. It happened while I was out day-sailing with friends who I had been promising to take sailing and never did, until then. The boat was under contract to be sold, and this was going to be my "last sail" on it before the deal closed. "Ain't over till the fat lady sings".



On a beam reach in 15kts and 1m seas, I noticed that the boat wasn't holding course. The wheel was turning the quadrant and the rudder post, but when I looked over the stern I could see the rudder was just flopping around.
After getting towed in by the CG (a nightmare as they towed me at 8kts and destroyed the bow pulpit), I hauled the boat and found:

The solid S.S rudder post had holes drilled through it and smaller diameter horizontal S.S. rods welded into the holes. The rudder was foam filled ad skinned with fibreglass. Water had gotten into the foam, the welds on the rods corroded (boat was 30+ years old at that point), and the rods broke loose from the rudder post.

Pretty easy, but not cheap fix (on my dime of course).