My rudder blade broke today, snapped cleanly in half as we were beating into the teeth of a F4-F5 along the Sussex coast. I was able to start and then steer with the outboard as we brought the sails in and regained control, motored back towards the harbour, then had an undiginifed tow in from one of the club RIBs. So nobody hurt and all back on the berth safely.

So I need a new blade. I recovered the snapped-off part and the rest of it is still between the wooden cheeks. One of the guys here at the club is a metals engineer and he thinks it's 8mm aluminium, and we might be able to get one laser cut somewhere using the old bits as a pattern. So I will be pursuing that locally over the next few days but if anyone out there knows where i can buy a new blade, or knows of a spare one anywhere, please reply here - thanks!

Alistair

Hi Alistair,
The rudder on the Seal 22 I bought in February needed replacing, unfortunately the attachment bolt hole had elongated. I contacted another Association member living in Totnes quite close to where I live. He lent me his rudder to use as a pattern.I took it to Peter Tanner Engineering,1 Burke Rd.Totnes TQ9 5XL. Tel. 01803 864528.

I wanted to lighten the stern and decide to go for marine grade aluminum.

It was laser cut and cost £125.00.....cash job...no VAT

Totnes isn't very convenient for you to have work done but at least

you have a price guide.


Lionel. (Cuattro Seal 22 141)

Several people have solved the weight/corrosion problems with the original boiler-plate rudder blade by copying it in aluminium alloy of one sort or another. Snag is that you get metal fatigue at the stress concentration along the line of the bottom of the stock and eventually the bottom of the rudder blade drops off (like in the early Comet airliners).

There are lots of different aluminium alloys with different characteristics and you need to select the right one which Sod's Law says won't be the cheapest/easiest to get one. Talk to your metal man and see what he recommends. He will probably want to sell you a solid titanium one (that would be good!).

The best solution we have found is to replace the whole lot with a Parker 21/235 rudder which is excellent and fits with little modification. Bill Parker used to be able to sell you one for several hundreds of £ but he isn't doing them any more and son Bruce (bpsailboats.com) is hard to contact.

Geoff Harwood (ex S/276 Zalophus)

Thanks Lionel, that helps, I know now to ask for 'marine grade' and we'll see where that takes me. Totnes is a bit far but I am pleased to know that this is do-able at a decent price. At least you replaced yours before it failed on you at sea!

The stress line along the bottom of the stock is exactly where mine has broken, as Geoff describes.

I've just extracted the top bit of the blade from inside the wooden stock and I notice it's thicker than the lower part of the blade, it might even be laminated either side with a thin sheet of something else, I wonder what that is? Bit of stainless steel or something?

Alistair, 22/122 Elsa

Hi Alistair,

The marine grade aluminium that Peter used to cut a new rudder blade is thicker than the boiler plate that was the original.

I hate to admit this but on one occasion this Summer I wound up the keel but forgot to lift the rudder (I have a drying out mooring). When I went to the boat the following day the stern was perched precariously in the air. Luckily no damage to either rudder blade or the stock.


Lionel.

From my 22 days, I noticed the cracks in the steel before it broke, this was a bit difficult to see as the previous owner had faced the sides with ply to a foil shape, then glassed over. This made the blade float and more efficient in the water.
My replacement was a piece of stainless steel, but only about 1/2 the length and with 2"holes, this was ply cased and shaped before glassing.
This worked well and also floated.

This isn't going so well. The blade is twice as thick at the top end, the part that's inside the stock. So, to take some marine grade Al, cut it to shape based on the old blade, cut two more smaller pieces and laminate / weld them at the top end to the required thickness, drill the eye-hole where it pivots and fit a bush inside, turns out to be a fairly complex bit of metal fabrication and I'm looking at a £500 job and two weeks elapsed time....

I suppose the alternative is a flat 9mm sheet of marine Al cut to size, and at the top end use some plastic discs as spacers to fit it snugly into the stock or something.

Lionel, how does your new blade fit into the stock, or is yours 16mm thick all the way down?

Alistair

Hi Alistair,

I'll check the thickness of the blade tomorrow.

Lionel.

The rudder's mended. My metals friend took it, welded it, then sliced off the extra thick layers of Al from the top end (the part inside the stock) and replaced them with fresh Al in a longer length, so they extend downwards over the fracture. All welded together very neatly. So, once re-assembled, the visible part of the blade has about an inch of extra metal at the top as it disappears into the stock. Hope that makes sense to the reader!

I scraped off the old antifoul (the stuff not suitable for aluminium) which hasn't helped the corrosion [:(]

I primed it and put on three coats of Trilux, re-hung it, it looks very smart and we went for a sail today and it feels fine.

Over the winter I think I will get a new one sorted. Still getting quotes for a custom Al blade, and I did briefly succeed in contacting Bruce Parker who indicated he could sell me a P235 rudder but I've since lost contact again.

Good to have the boat back in use though!