[Rhodes22-list] Wallowed Out Holes in Rudder/Head Assy; Flex with Rudder

[Graham Stewart]

To be clear, my rudder was not hollow by design - as far as I could tell. It had large voids throughout. 

I also rebuilt my centerboard and it had no voids that I could tell. Both the rudder and the centerboard for boats of that vintage used the same mold and are identical except that the centerboard has added weight. 

The keel had voids but was not likely built to be hollow. In that case I discovered that the large cracks under the keel had been allowing loose material, including flakes of metal probably intended to be ballast, to leak out. My understanding is that the ballast used in the R22 varied a lot over the years. As mentioned before, I was able to put 3 gallons of resin in the keel. That is a lot of space in my books. I am in Canada and we have very cold winters. Water in any of these places could do a lot of damage. The fact that I have had no visible damage from freezing in the years since I did this work suggests that there is very little water in these pieces now.

Graham Stewart
Agile, Rodes 22, 1976
Kingston Ontario







-----Original Message-----
From: Rhodes22-list [mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Tom Van Heule
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2021 1:28 PM
To: The Rhodes 22 Email List
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Wallowed Out Holes in Rudder/Head Assy; Flex with Rudder

If my rudder is hollow it still weighs +45lbs....it does NOT sound hollow.
 2011 boat.

On Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 11:13 AM Lowe, Rob <rlowe at vt.edu> wrote:

> Allyn,
> The rudder on my boat is hollow also.  I believe they are made that way.
> I did have to drain some water out and I used epoxy to seal the edges. Not
> sure about you rudder to head assembly.  Can you take some photos that we
> can look at? - rob
>
> ________________________________
> From: Rhodes22-list <rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org> on behalf of
> Allyn Baskerville <allynb at adsne.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2021 6:00 PM
> To: The Rhodes 22 Email List <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Wallowed Out Holes in Rudder/Head Assy; Flex with
> Rudder
>
> The rudder on my Rhodes is hollow - are all the rudders hollow? We just
> had single digit temps for a week, and I didn't think of the possibility of
> the rudder being partially filled with water, which it was, but there
> doesn't appear to be any freeze damage. However, the holes the bolt that
> holds the rudder to the rudder head assembly are wallowed out on both the
> rudder and the head assembly. It's been like this since I purchased the
> boat, but I'd like to fix it as it's gradually getting worse. Are there
> supposed to be bushings where the rudder attaches to the head assembly?
>
> I generally feel a lot of flex in the tiller and/or rudder on windier
> days, which is a pretty high percentage here in Oklahoma. I can't tell
> exactly where the flex is coming from, but I think it's the rudder head
> assembly, which is made of plastic. Has anyone else noticed flex? If so,
> can you please describe what you did to fix the issue?
>
> Thanks - Allyn
>