After Unstepping the mast in our last video, it's now time to get the rudder removed and see what over 30 years of bluewater crusing can do. It's important f...

Closed Captions (CC):
how's this DMV yeah - takin a nap after

eating a ton of sand yeah it's so much

sand

[Music]

last time on sailing Bala Chandra we

welcome Zeus our newest crewmember and

as part of our prep for Bahamas we

removed the mast hey guys so we're

hauled out of the water you can see here

our bottom paint is still in really good

shape from the last time we did it you

just go back and click on this video you

can watch us doing the bottom paint last

year we caught ourselves some fishing

line well we've got these blades here

which keeps it from getting into our

drop here so another thing to look at

here is our zinc's we were in the water

for up to a year this one here is well

deteriorated this is an aluminum zinc

it's hardly deteriorated at all use

aluminum jigs for fresh water not so

much for saltwater but you can see there

is some pitting here so it was doing

something and I've got a zinc here at

the end of the prop and this one in

particular actually fared really well we

only lost a little bit off the end I

don't know I might consider just leaving

it on there when we launched so yeah

we're going to drop the Rutter today the

main reason we're dropping the rudder is

because we're going to be cruising in

the Bahamas for a long time and I was

told when I bought the boat that the

rudder wasn't in great shape I'm pretty

sure that it's delaminated but it's

definitely a wet rudder and the webbing

inside is made of mild steel which is

super dangerous because if that rots or

rusts and breaks and falls off we lose a

rudder underway really bad idea the guys

here at the club put our rudder just off

the end of the slip here so once I drop

the rudder down there's this space here

but that's not enough to get the rudder

out this whole slip can move because

this is the slip they used to you know

actually launch the boats when this slip

moves we can drop the rudder lower

and get it out so this is the AB sateen

you're a transom right here and this is

probably the best way for me to access

our steering connections and all of my

lines and cables and ropes and stuff

we're stored in here

Here I am inside of my half city near my

transom this is where my rudder shaft is

coming up through the boat and this all

has to be disconnected and this is my

autopilot control arm here and that has

to be disconnected and below here is my

autopilot sensor arm and that has to be

disconnected that bolt right there has

to come off so that the rudder can drop

I went ahead and marked all of the

center points for the autopilot and for

the actual steering column so that no

matter what happens I hopefully won't

have to calibrate anything when I go

back in I've removed all of the steering

stuff and I'm ready to drop the rudder

shaft this is like a bearing that spins

and goes around on this plate and so now

I'm just gonna pop these bearings off

and once that's done it should be free

to drop all right well it took all day

the way these things typically do but I

got my rudder now tied on and I did this

rope that goes across and below kind of

a little basket for the rudder to hold

and that's my car Jack underneath that's

holding the rudder up I had to lift the

rudder slightly just to allow for me to

remove the last bolt and yes there's a

party going on they've been partying

here all all day here at the dock so I'm

ready now to remove the jack and let the

lines take the load of the rudder and

then I'll slowly move the rudder down

and if I don't have enough room to

totally remove the rudder I can lower

the slip and get it down the rest of the

way all right so I got the rudder drop

just by a couple inches here it worked

out okay so the ropes holding this

blocking is holding so the next step is

to drop this slip just a bit and let the

pressure go on the rope

so then I can lower it down using the

ropes which are attached right up here

on my winches all right so we got the

rudder down here it is I just needed a

couple guys to stand on each side to

support it as it came down we didn't get

it on video because I actually had to

help yeah it only took about 20 minutes

to drop it the last little bit the

surprise for me was how much it actually

weighs I mean this rudder is probably

like I'd give it to 300 pounds easy I've

got my rudder out I'm ready to cut it

open and see what I've got inside

no it's wet and I've been told that all

of the webbing inside the framework that

is it welded to the shaft itself is

supposed to be mild steel so let's find

out

[Music]

all right so now that I've cut all along

the edges here and made kind of a window

I've got my pry bar and I'm just getting

this under here here's the big reveal

Wow

right check this one out okay what we're

looking at here is rigid foam that's

mobile this one here that like that

window insulation foam that you bought

at the hardware store like what's that

doing here

and of course everything's soaking wet

but there's good news and there's bad

news here but good news is the

fiberglass layer looks pretty good like

I mean it's not wet it's not delaminated

so chances are the whole thing has

decent fiberglass left inside which is

great I can use that the other good news

is that these webbings inside appear to

be stainless steel not mild steel I was

told these would be mild steel and that

I would have to get new ones welded on

but from the looks of this they are not

mild steel they're stainless steel which

is what I was hoping for and what I kind

of expected to see so I'm just gonna

clear out all this crappy core fill

refill it with expanding foam and then

rege last this side and I'm done so it

turns out if you're working with

urethane expanding foam you want to have

as little moisture as possible and

roughly 23 degrees Celsius or so some

people were kind enough to let me use

this awesome room here at the club of

where I'm going to be working on my

runner here's the rudder all set up on

sawhorses I was able to use actually the

the jack from my car and did this pretty

much all by myself I have already

removed all the foam as you can see this

stuff here is actually some kind of a

filler whose sanded the inside of this

fiberglass layer just enough to rough it

up so that the foam will bond to the

fiberglass this steel shaft and all of

these webbings were in pretty good shape

actually there was some rusty looking

spots but it was just staining really so

I took a wire wheel and polished up

every part that I could see actually if

you look really closely here you can see

there's a bit

of pitting in the rust but it's not that

bad it's only in a few spots like here

on the shaft and there the weld looks

good no problem there so at this stage

all I need to do is wipe this down with

some acetone to clean up any dust or

grease or debris or whatever might be in

there and get it all ready to go and I

can start mixing up my expanding foam

and pouring it in look who just showed

up hey guys hey Zeus hi come check out

the rudder progress yeah the expanding

foam I'm using is from smooth on it's

called foam at 10 okay with this foam

you use equal parts a and B the first

thing you want to do is shake this up

really good okay start with this one

don't do the same there and you have

about 45 seconds to stir it before it

starts to set up and says sister

rigorously

[Music]

[Music]

okay so I am officially done pouring

foam so you can see that I've already

kind of carved this to a degree I've had

poured all this foam and it overflowed

and everything I took a regular saw like

a wood cutting handsaw and it worked

really well for carving this out and

then I just filled all the low spots

with some more foam so I'll just carve

the rest of these spot file and sand it

down smooth and then I'll be ready to

start doing epoxy and fiberglass work

[Music]

now that I'm done rough carving the foam

using the saw like I need to knock this

part down here a bit and just get that

that perfect curve that I have on the

other side I also need to remove all

this bottom paint and bare your coat

that's on this side there it is so I've

now totally carved and shaped the foam

and it's pretty good match from one side

to the other so I should be able to go

to the next step now which is sealing

this with epoxy and then after that I'll

be adding some filler so that I could

push it into some of these holes you

don't want these air pockets underneath

the glass all right so I've got the

first layer of epoxy done and it's dry I

also took a trowel and spread around

some thickened epoxy so that's epoxy

mixed with 4:04 filler and so now I'm

ready to sand this down I'm going to

clean it with some acetone and then I'm

ready to wet it out and lay some

fiberglass I'm going to be using 18:08

fiberglass which is a really heavy

fiberglass I'm putting down two layers

of that

[Music]

so I'm done the fiberglass so when that

started to get tacky I just went over it

with a bit of thickened epoxy just to

clean up and fill up any little voids or

holes that was left over and so now I'm

ready to do the faring compound and in

order to prep the surface I sanded

everything down and I used acetone to

clean up all the dust and anything that

might be there and I'm ready to apply

this very compound

[Music]

okay so now that one side of the rudder

is finished I'm now working on the other

side and yes this looks like a total

mess I've scraped some of that away and

sanded and gotten right down to some

glass in certain places if you look and

see everything that I have circled these

are spots where holes were drilled and

I'm obviously not the first person to

own this rudder I have no idea what they

were drilled for probably to drain or to

find you know the steel members within

the rudder itself I don't know if they

were filled with epoxy and this one was

filled with teak hard to believe

so I circled them because I'm going to

grind them all out one out of time and

then properly patch them with 105 and

206 epoxy and some my axial cut into

small pieces so I've had a chance to

grind away some of these spots that I

had circled where I want to do some

repairs there ground out little cavities

there yeah I don't know if you can see

these but there's a significant dip

there it's important to have a dip so

that you can get enough glass and

material in there that it does a decent

patch okay so all my patches are dry and

sanded and ready to go I've already

started to throw a faring compound out

I'm going to fare all the rest of the

rudder the other thing I'm about to do

is I'm going to take my dremel and just

grind in here and remove some of this

material just up against where the shaft

goes into the rudder because this is a

spot where a lot of leaks occur on a lot

of boats

I'm not going to grind right through the

full fiberglass layer but I am going to

grind just a little bit in there so I

can throw some G flex epoxy in there

it's a flexible epoxy okay so I used the

Dremel and I got right in here and made

like a nice little groove all the way

around here

now I'm ready to start doing the bottom

pane need to protect mm II barrier code

mixed it up here I'm going to apply it

with a roller

[Music]

well done there's four coats of barrier

code on here it looks really nice time

to put it back on the boat this is very

heavy rudder and there's I can't think

of any way to get it back onto the boat

without doing something elaborate so I'm

gonna build a cradle for the rudder with

wheels on it that you can roll

underneath the back of the boat and then

use a jack to push the butter back up

into the boat I'm gonna see how it goes

yeah mm-hmm all right so here's the

structure I built with the rudder in it

this is all built of two by fours and

there's some casters on it to wheel it

around and it's all braced with the best

engineering I can basically come up with

on my own

I used the spar crane to lift up the

rudder into the air and then lower it

back down into this wooden cradle this

is the slipway about the club and what I

can do is lower this lip which separates

it from where my boat is and where the

cradle is just far enough and it drops

just far enough that I can line up that

hole with the top of the rudder you know

well it Sue's

so if now totally dismantled the cradle

I was using to lift it up because the

cradle was all around it it was in the

way ty came up uh me saying rubber boots

here that's okay I still can work and

only got you more'n just to go next time

on sailing Bala Chandra we get launched

and we finally get assigned our mooring

for the summer we start planning our

trip to the Caribbean and of course

Zeus hey guys thanks for watching if you

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comment below see you guys later

come on Zeus come on

[Applause]

Zuse gopher haircut tomorrow he's gonna

look very different