Hi Joe, When I had my M15 at a local Connecticut lake, the lake water level could vary significantly.
When it was very low, the bottom of my rudder would be digging in the bottom mud because of powerboat wakes / wind. I couldn't raise the rudder because it would then stick out into the path of passing boats. This degraded the bottom of the rudder, so I decided to correct the problem and add some armor plating to the lower area and the leading edge of the rudder. I totally stripped the rudder of it's varnish. Then I corrected leading , bottom, and trailing edge dings and dents by cutting out the affected areas and epoxy gluing in "dutchmen" which were then reshaped to the proper rudder contours. A "dutchmen" is just a piece of wood (mahogany in this case) which you glue in place to correct the defect. With all problems corrected; profiles re-established; and sanded, I then covered the lower 1/3rd of the rudder with fiberglass cloth (double layer on the bottom edge - the most vulnerable part for me) and added a piece of fiberglass tape up the leading edge of the rudder (using WEST epoxy products; resins and fillers). When it had all hardened, I trimmed the excess fiberglass cloth, and added another coat of epoxy to fill the pores in the cloth. Then I faired and sanded the fiberglass edges so that the whole rudder was smooth. I used bottom paint on the lower part of the rudder, a white boot top stripe, and varnish on the area above the waterline. That made a bulletproof rudder, and all additional mud / bottom grinding did was to take off the anti-fouling paint, but it didn't damage the bottom of the rudder in the least. Connie ex M15 #400 LEPPO Joe Murphy wrote: > Has anyone ever used bronze edging on the leading edge of the rudder? > Something similar to a rub rail? Just a thought of how to give it some > additional protection. Just a swag. > Joe > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Andrei Caldararu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" > <[email protected]> > Sent: Sunday, July 06, 2008 10:35 AM > Subject: M_Boats: Revarnish rudder? > > > >> Hello, >> >> The varnish on my M-17 rudder is starting to peel off, especially at >> the leading edge. Did anyone here revarnish theirs? Do I need to >> remove the old varnish first and then recoat it? What materials have >> people used? How many coats are needed? The rudder will spend its time >> out of the water when boat is not sailed. >> >> Thanks, >> >> Andrei. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats > > _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
