Hi Jane & Tom; I'm facing a bit of rudder repair myself this winter.
My lake gets so low that the poor rudder has been taking a beating - sailing, or backing out of the slip. So, at the moment, I have a small cracked portion on the aft bottom end of the rudder that needs TLC. I intend to repair the wood, then put some fiberglass cloth over the lower third of the rudder to protect it from the rocks, and to strengthen the vulnerable area. At that point I'll refinish the rest of the rudder too. Currently I have some bottom paint on the rudder (it came that way when I bought it), but this is a nuisance, because the paint leaves a trail of blue streaks if you slide it into the cabin or into the car without carefully wrapping the rudder blade to prevent blue streaks. My thought is to just fiberglass the rudder; then varnish the above water portion - for good looks - and use a polyurethane paint below the water line. Will have to check with the paint manufacturers and see what they say about their paint adhesion when immersed over longer time periods. Connie M15 #400 _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
