Rudder Loss

[chloe]

I have just been informed that the Eygthene 24 is prone to rudder loss. We have had three over the years at the club and two have lost their rudder. One snapped and the other had the fiberglass shaft come apart leaving the boat rudderless and taking in water. Has anybody suffered rudder loss and do you have any advice for me? Many thanks Jonathan.

[JBaldo]

Jonathon,

There has been an instance of a rudder being lost in recent years which you can read about on the old forum.

The Eygthene moored in the Tamar (near Plymouth) lost its rudder. We think someone went on board and removed the tiller and its head attachment. The rudder will drop out of the bottom when the head is removed. The owner made a new rudder with the aid of measurements from another rudder (mine) and the drawings that his father made from the measurements have just been posted on this website (Photos and articles).

The stock is a 1 inch stainless steel bar that goes from the head down about 3/4 of the length into the inside of the blade and it is reinforced with a stainless steel sleeve 1/4 inch thick over a length of about 2 ft, half above and half below the waterline. It is very strong and unlikely to fail. Some boats with a similar rudder design have experienced damage to the bonding of the stock to the inside of the blade, which has resulted in the blade becoming loose on the stock. There are some pictures of a repair to cure this type of problem, which have also just been posted on the website.

One owner has added a bolt and washer to the top of the stock to prevent it dropping out when the head is removed. Not a big worry unless you want to take the head off the stock whilst afloat.

The GRP blade can be damaged or the stock bent in a heavy grounding, especially if the boat drags its anchor back into rocks. I suppose the GRP tube that houses the stock could be broken away from the hull in an extreme instance, leaving a hole to flood the boat. The Eygthene is not any more prone to this type of damage than other boats with similar spade rudders. In fact the stainless steel stock is stronger than the aluminium ones used on some boats.

John Baldock

[chloe]

Thanks for the reasuring news and comments.

[Rich]

I have been looking at the pictures of the rudder repair on the website, and the rudder internals look to have a reassuringly robust construction, far better than some i have seen!

My rudder has a somewhat imprecise feel whilst sailing, this has however been tracked back to the wrong head being fitted, it doesn't clamp tight enough, it does however have a pin through the stock, this is what has stopped it dropping out (!) and is why there is some play.

Luckily my dad has an old stock head off a Ballad, this looks like it should fit, and does have the emergency pin!

[JBaldo]

Actually Rich, The internals shown on the new pictures are of a similar design, but not actually an Eygthene. The Eygthene stock (1" dia with 1 1/2" dia sleeve extending above & below waterline) does not have multiple arms as in the photos, but a single stainless steel plate about 1 1/2 " x 5" x 1/4" thick welded to the bottom of the 1" dia like a golf club iron (or letter L). The whole of the stainless steel within the rudder is wrapped in GRP and then bonded securely with glass and resin to one side of the hollow GRP rudder blade. The other side of the blade is then bolted through in 3 or 4 places with stainless steel bolts and the edges bonded together with glass and resin. Finally the internal void is filled with polyurethane foam.

It is a reassuringly strong assembly, but the rudder can be damaged by heavy grounding, such that the stock can bend where it exits the hull, cracking the blade sides apart along the joint and allowing water into the (not closed cell) foam and loosening the bond between the stock and the blade.

To asses the bend in the stock, you need to stand behind the lifted boat, with the rudder centred and get a measure of how far the bottom tip is bent to one side of the centreline of the keel. Also from the side, look at the top of the rudder and measure how far the top is tilted up or down in relation to the vestigal skeg under the stern.

To repair the rudder, you need to drop the rudder, split the two halves apart (hacksaw blade, hammer and chisel), scrape out the old wet foam, cut away the stock from the half blade (angle head grinder + force), straighten the stock (hydraulic press), then line up the stock accurately in the half blade and bond it back in to one half (epoxy resin and glass), offer up the other half and refit the stainless steel bolts, bonding the edges with thickened epoxy resin and over laying edges with glass and resin. Using a 1" hole saw cut out a disk from the top face of the blade and pour in the mixture of foaming polyurethane resin and hardener (maybe in two stages). Bond the cut out disk back into the hole. Fair the blade with epoxy resin and microballoons, sanding to a fair section. Prime with epoxy primer. Then when refitted to the hull, antifoul as normal.

Should not take too long, but lining up the stock and blade is the most critical part. You need to make a simple "jig" out of a large board and some wooden blocks and Vee blocks to get everything true. This would be easier if you had a straight rudder to make the jig for, but of course, yours will be bent, so you have to think how it would line up if it were straight and make the jig to allow for this. Make the jig before you dismantle the half rudder from the stock, so that you can fit the half-blade accurately to the stock when reassembling.

John Baldock

[Rich]

Slight confusion!
I was only commenting on the construction of the rudder in that picture! Theres nothing actually wrong with my rudder!

[JBaldo]

No Rich, I knew yours was not damaged, but when I posted the pictures on The Articles & Photos page, there was supposed to be a description of how to mend the damage that may occur (it did not appear). As you had commented on the photos, I decided to spell out the procedure, ready for the next member who has that problem.

I will be selling Siddique as we have now bought a Jeanneau Sun Light 30 and will be cruising that in future, so I will eventually not be posting on this website any more.

John Baldock

[AndreasKrafft]

Hy,

Unfortunaly I also lost my Rudder recently! Does anyone have the blueprints in higher quality than those in the photos section? Or even better, is anyone in possesion of contact details to master marine or Ron Holland? Or who ever may have original blueprints or moulds for the rudder? I would be pleased about any asistance!

Andreas

AndreasKrafft@gmx.de

[JBaldo]

Andreas,

The rudder on my Eygthene was measured a few years ago by one of our fellow owners (John) and the drawing (the scanned image of which is on this website) was made by his father, this owner still has the original. You can contact him at wightwind@hotmail.com though I have an idea that he has sold his Eygthene now. He sent me a scan of this drawing which the webmaster put on the website.

The lines drawing by Ron Holland does not have the sections of the rudder, just the profile. I have an original copy of this drawing and I scanned it in 8 sections and pasted them together for this website.

Master Marine, who were based in Guernsey, ceased operations many years ago

I know the scanned copies are not very clear, but they do contain all of the best information we can get and it is possible to read them with difficulty.

Best wishes

John Baldock

[BamBam]

Hello Folks

This is my first reply on the board.
I am from Germany and own my E24 since last year; actually it's our second one.

I do have a little bit of play at my tiller/helm.
While I was passing BF8 in Summer 2009 with high pressure on the rudder,
I am a little bit afraid of breaking or losing it this season.

Is there any solution how I can prevent damage or loss ?

Thx, Tristan

[JBaldo]

Hello Tristan and welcome to the Eygthehe 24 website.

I do not think that your rudder is actually likely to fall off, but if you want to make sure, you can fit an extra bolt and washer to the top of the stock (steel rod on which the blade is mounted), so that the washer is larger than the hole in the tiller head. You will find that it may need a recess (counterbore) in the top of the head, to allow the bolt and washer to sit inside the head and allow the tiller hood to rest down in its normal position. There was a lot of discussion on this topic in an earlier thread on the old Forum at http://eygthene24.proboards.com/index.c ... &thread=16 which you can read.

My tiller head is clamped to a square on the top of the stock and then there is a 8mm set screw which is threaded into the front side of the head and tightens into a blind cross-hole in the stock about 10mm from the top of the square. In spite of this there is a small amount of angular movement between the tiller and the rudder which I have learned to live with. The movement is due to the square in the head being slightly larger than the square on the top of the stock. If everything were perfect, these two squares would be the same size to give a tight fit.

The extra bolt and washer would require an extra threaded hole down into the top if the stock.

John Baldock