Hi all,
I need a bit of help.
Does anyone know any contact details of the mob who used to work at Greg's Marine in O'Connor. The reason I ask is that they have the only moulds for a RW rudder (...i know) and I need a new rudder. (after the other one broke in two because of poor workmanship on their behalf)
I understand that business has shut down and I have previously been able to get in contact with Josh Bell and partly negotiated the lending of the moulds. But now Josh is not picking up his phone or answering emails.
Does anyone work with him or know what he's up to at the moment?
Even better, does anyone know of contact details of anyone else who worked at Greg's Marine? If i can talk to someone else, I might be able to get them to access the moulds, which are currently in storage somewhere.
Any other suggestions? I want the job done properly as last time I made a rudder, it broke
Thanks all
I would go and talk to a surf board shaper and get one made with some sort of foam insert and covered in proper fiberglass dirrectional cloth or carbon, could be a bit expensiver but would not snap like the one of the pic!
I would be inclined to make a blade from exterior waterproof ply, laminated to the correct thickness and then shaped. Couple of layers of cloth and epoxy resin, avoid using fibreglass resin. The ply layers make it easy to check on the shaping. FGI 180 resin and a couple of layers of 6 ounce cloth.
If you start paying people to do this sort of job your boat will soon be overcapitalised. Bloke in Perth charges over $600 for a new Sabre centreboard. Should be able to do this yourself for under $100.
Felix: i did think about that but i think the loads on the rudder might be too much for that kind of construction. I have had three rudders break now whilst planing and surfing. Im reluctant to build myself or with a weak core if it cannot hold these conditions. This is what the boat is designed to do!
Ramona: thanks for your tip, I will keep it in mind. I'd rather someone else make the rudder, since I'm not that experienced in this sort of work. Last time I made my own rudder, it was 50mm marine ply, shaped and layered up with 3 layers of matt glass. Needless to say that one broke at the pintles clean in too, it was the screws which ruined the structure and the poor design by me that broke it.
As to price, I just want something that will work, plus the insurance will likely cover this situation.
Do you know of any people in Perth/Fremantle who is able to do this sort of thing?
I have already spoken to Brett Burvill at Windrush Yachts, who gave me a quote for making a rudder out of the moulds. Will ask about a new one. Anyone else?
Also, looking at the picture, do you think the rudder is rectifiable? It is hollow for about 140mm deep (see picture). If I gave it to someone with a lot of experience, do you reckon they could fit another half back on?
Hey Ozza,
I used to work at Boating Hardware in O'Connor and I think I even spoke to you when you were hunting about for the moulds.
I don't know why Josh isn't answering his phone and although all my dealings with him seemed OK, he was probably more suited to stink boat repairs in polyester rather than rudder making, hence this one being made from chopstrand when it really should of had double bias on the 45 and uni.
The two best guys in Perth for doing this sort of work are the guys @ Windrush or the guy that build moths, I have forgotton his name but the guys @ Boating Hardware will have his details.
If those guys are busy there another guy called Dennis, again ask Boating Hardware for his details. He works out of a shed in Naval Base and has built boards for high performance cats and understands the loads etc.
Hope that helps
Hey rumblefish,
thanks for that advice, i thought it was odd too, my dealings with gregs and Josh (two in the past) have always been satisfactory
on wed i'll see Brett down at windrush and get an idea on what my options are, seeing as i'll be down that way i'll pop into boating hardware seeing as you guys seem to be pretty knowledgable on just about everything!
Hopefully I can get this ball rolling by the end of the week and coordinate with insurance and builders.
Thanks for your input you guys!! great place to go for help!
My idea was to start with a foam core and have some plywood inserts where the bolts are in the rudder and to run some carbon dirrectional fibre (on each side) so not to allow the rudder to bend and snap, it would take many kilos of push to brake.
yeah that's an idea i'll run all these past the builders im meeting today thanks felix
Bernd kohler a German Multihull designer living in France that a brilliant way of building Rudders and dagger boards, check this out
www.duckworksmagazine.com/07/howto/rudder/index.htm
His English is at times not the best but what a great bloke to talk to. I own his Eco7 plans but possibly will never get to build the boat due to advanced decrepitude (old fart). There is a groups.yahoo.com/group/k-designs/ forum that is quite interesting.
well it all went better than expected really
i went to see the guys at boating hware to get some contact details then went to have a talk to Brett Burvill about using a mould from another boat and just cutting it down to size. we agreed that making one from scratch, with shaped timber etc. or even from more exotic materials would just over-capitalise a pretty cheap boat and wouldn't give that much of an advantage
While I was talking to Brett I got a call from another bloke I had organised to make a rudder from the moulds and it turns out he had the moulds all along... so problem solved, for a reasonable price.
Thanks for the help anyway
