Hi Andrei, I repaired (cracks) in my wooden M15 rudder. I also strengthened it because the lake where I sailed was quite shallow, and if the water level fell by 6" you might make unwelcome contact with rocks. To repair the rudder I first stripped all the old varnish off it, so that I was down to bare wood. Leading edge dents at the bottom of the rudder were repaired by removing a piece in that area; replacing it with another piece of mahogany that I glued in place using WEST Epoxy products (which I've used for years). After reshaping the repaired area of the leading edge, I then covered the rudder blade with fiberglass cloth, using the WEST System epoxy. At the leading edge, I put on two layers of fiberglass tape - about 3 inches wide - as an added protection for that area. I did the same at the bottom of the rudder; again for added strength and also for protection of the rudder when the lake level fell and the bottom of the rudder was touching bottom...... After the fiberglass work had dried, I then sanded it all; added another coat of epoxy to fill the pores in the fiberglass cloth weave; sanded again until everything was very smooth. Then, since I left the boat in the water at the local lake for the summer, I painted the rudder with anti-fouling paint, and varnished the mahogany above the boot top stripe. ------------------------------------- For more detailed information on how to do this, get WEST's very informative "how-to" book - free - either from WEST directly, or probably also available from WEST Marine stores who sell WEST epoxy products. Incidentally, WEST has a small quantity of 5 minute epoxy available as a repair kit. I find it very useful to have on hand. You make up two or three drops of 5 Minute epoxy for any sort of a quick repair job..... Connie ex M15 #400 LEPPO Andrei Caldararu wrote:
Hi Monty sailors,
I have some questions about wood care:
1) I am refinishing my original M-17 rudder. I removed the thick orange coating on it; it still seems to have some old orangey coat on it which is not peeling, so I was not going to remove it (it seems to be too much work), but rather sand it down to a rough state. The rudder has a couple of cracks in it, but which do not go through. I was going to fiberglass over the leading edge, the bottom edge, and over the cracks. Is this a good idea? What fiberglass system should I use? (E.g., West system, stuff from Home depot, etc.) Then I was going to coat everything in either Cetol or marine varnish. Which one is better? I'd rather not have to take care of it for a while from now. The boat is not kept in the water, although it will be making some week-long trips when it will stay for a week at a time in the water.
2) I am also working on an old 11 ft wood sailboat whose hull I got to bare wood. I would like to get a nice wood look, but not need to worry about rot in the future. I was thinking of putting one layer of fiberglass on top of it, and then using a marine varnish on top. What kind of fiberglass do you recommend? How thick? Where to buy it? What kind of varnish? How many coats? Where to buy it?
Thanks,
Andrei.
_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats