This was supposed to be the year…replaced the cabin sole, brand new sails from Thurston, bunch of other work over the winter. First day of my 2 week vacation on the boat, sailing from Salem MA to Plymouth, and the rudder snapped off in 25 knots of wind. All I could do was watch it sink as I tried to get the sails down.
Anybody been through a rudder replacement? Does anyone on the list have patterns, pics or suggestions??
Woah, that’s crazy, I’m so sorry to hear it! Where did it separate? Do you have any pictures of what’s left?
Not yet sure where it broke…I’m in Scituate tonight and I’m going to have it hauled out here and then see what’s left and try to figure out what to do. Until then I can only see the headstock, which all seems fine. I’ve been searching some old posts and it seems like the same thing has happened with other F28’s.
Here’s the damage after Nova Vita was hauled today. Appears to have snapped cleanly off at the base of the rudder post. She has never been grounded or suffered any significant impact in my 4 years of ownership.
I had the same failure in about 2004 or 5. I searched all over the country to find a replacement or someone who would build a new rudder. I found finally a company in Road Island who built spars and hardware for America Cup boats. I am away from my records to find the name of the company but I may have posted about it and the post should be in the archives. State Farm was paying the bill. The company found a 28 on the hard and reverse engineered the design and built it with a foam core, carbon fiber layer covered in gel coat. The rudder post was a carbon fiber tube. Their bill was over $10k. State Farm didn’t blink and the whole bill including installation was about 12k. It was one hell of a rudder. At that time the 28’s were worth in the high twenties. Now with them selling in the high teens insurance could total the boat. There were only 25 made. I had hull #2 which was actually hull #1. If you can’t find a post in the archives post again. I could get my son to dig out the records.
Hi Lionel7, thanks for the info, I have already searched the archives and found all of your old posts on the rudder which were incredibly helpful. I’m in the same spot now that you were in 2006 and I am working with the same people. The price has gone up about 20% but obviously it’s the highest quality. Whether to sink that much more into her with the current market value of a 1987 F28, that will depend on whether I am as successful with my insurance company as you were. Thanks again for the reply!
Good luck. It’s a great boat. Sure would be great if you can save her. Going with a friend who is in the market for a boat to look at a nice Freedom 30 later this week. I’ve owned three Freedoms now.
Hard luck. Consider reaching out to the old Phil’s Foils, now CCI @ http://cci.one, and Foss Foam Rudders @ http://fossrudders.com/. The former builds some really nice stuff. Regardlessa, it may take a while to get one… Is there a reason for the foil to be Carbon? The post I can understand, since it looks like the original one was composite and broke.
Our boat had a lot of rudder vibration when motoring with the old two blade prop. With the new feathering 3 bade, that all went away.
Erik
Erik, thanks for the tip…CCI provided me with a quote for a new rudder at a third of the cost (and half the leadtime) compared to GMT Composites, who built the F28 rudder for Doug in 2006. The only problem is that I can’t give CCI a lines drawing or any better dimensions of the rudder than what is on sailboatdata.com or in the original Freedom brochure.
Doug, by chance did GMT Composites give you the dimensional info when they built your rudder? Or does anyone on the list have access to any better drawings of the rudder? Maybe there is an F28 owner with their boat on the hard and I could take some measurements??
No I didn’t get the drawings of the new rudder. I tried Gary Mulls widow in California who had an erratic history of responding. She has all the plans. She didn’t respond. Also tried people from Freedom as Freedom had recently closed. No luck. Finding a 28 to reverse engineer or downsizing an F30 you might find is probably your best bet.
I thought Jim Antrim took over and managed most if Gary’s designs.
https://antrimdesign.com/index.html.
GMT may give you a copy of the drawings and layup schedule. If not, I would not hesitate to ask Jim for help. Excellent structural guy and very straight forward.
You don’t need the exact same rudder. It just has to fit the boat (shaft diameter, angle between the rudder shaft, hull, and top of rudder. Etc) that’s not to hard to measure. Its has to be strong enough - you have info in the needed strength of the shaft. Layup schedule of the foil is partially dependent on the core and the shaft engagement. Profile and foil section… you have experience with hire the boat steers, rudder pressure, weather helm… it is a great time to make a better rudder. Not necessarily the same.
Best of luck!
Drove down to the boat last night (she’s stranded about 2 hours away) and pulled out the rudder stock. Not a huge deal, just 2 bolts through the shaft, loosen the cables on the steering quadrant, unbolt and separate the quadrant halves, and then a little more pounding than I anticipated but it did come out. No signs of any other damage and the plastic bearing sleeves seem fine.
I called Jim Antrim and although he did some work for Gary Mull’s widow, he doesn’t have any of the drawings. Meanwhile I have asked if GMT would be willing to share the drawings that they have for a fee. Erik, take your point that the rudder doesn’t have to be exactly the same and maybe can be even better, but I do want to be sure I have the fit right between the rudder and the hull. I made some cardboard templates but if I can’t get the drawings, I might try to use a piece of PVC pipe and some thin plywood to mock up the top section of the rudder.
Sorry about my misunderstanding re Gary’s drawings.
Is the shaft fiberglass with st. steel wear sleeves? And do you have a bushing or a bearing on the bottom in the hull?
Errik
No problem, I am looking for any leads I can get! I hope to make a decision Monday on getting someone started to build a new rudder.
The outside of the shaft is FRP but I think that overall it is a mix of FRP and carbon. Where it’s broken off at the base it looks like you can see strips of carbon. There is foam inside the shaft, but it only extends about 10" or so from the base, above that it is hollow. There are 3 stainless collars; one at the base, one at the top, and one in the middle. The top and bottom collars ride in bushings set into the hull and deck, I think they are HMWP but not sure how they are bonded in. The middle collar is where the steering quadrant attaches. There are two 3/8" bolts, one through the quadrant at the middle of the shaft, and one at the top. I think that the middle bolt takes all of the load, and the top bolt is only to serve as an attachment point for the emergency tiller, and to act against the stops to limit the lateral travel of the rudder.
As discouraging as all of this is, it could have been worse. Thank goodness I lost the rudder when I was several miles offshore and didn’t have anything to run into. If this occurred in one of the canals or in Woods Hole, it could have been much messier.
Could this have been prevented in advance? I’m not yet sure. I have never dropped the rudder, but I did inspect it visually every off-season and wiggled it back and forth as hard as I could. The surveyor who looked at it suspects that it could have been cracked for some time based on the discoloration of the foam around the break and the marine critters swarming inside. Not sure if I will ever know.
The other lesson I learned is to know what your towing coverage is before you need it. I didn’t, and got a little screwed as a result.
Interesting build if there is carbon and glass in the shaft. I’ve been told that because the carbon is so much stiffer than the glass, it takes all the load until it fails, and then the glass is to weak and fails right away, too.
Look at your lower bushing and check for wear. You really want the rudder shaft loaded right where it exists the hull, to minimize cantilever loading. I think HMWP is very low friction, but also a soft material. There may be better bushing materials for this as application.
F28 hull #46 reporting in. We had an identical failure and loss of the rudder today in Buzzards Bay. Sailing on a broad reach in approx. 20 kt wind, a big wave hit, and we abruptly lost steering. The boat hasn’t been hauled yet, but when feeling it under water the remains of the rudder post felt like your picture appears: fragments of fiberglass and not much else.
Walter- do you think CCI will do a 2-for-1 deal? 
Seriously though, thanks so much for the info about your progress. We were worried about the boat being a total loss, but we get to start dealing with the insurance claim tomorrow.
Chris
Mull F28 #46 Paragon
I have a spare F30 rudder from an F30 which was parting out in Mass. a couple of years ago. I paid $500 for it and would sell it for same if someone could use it. II was doing some ocean racing and did not want a broken rudder to get in the way of my goal to do the singlehanded transpac in 2016. Two of my SSS colleagues had lost rudders. The rudder is is excellent shape. You would have to figure out shipping from California Bay Area.
I went on Boston Craigslist and found a couple who were looking for a rider to help with gas to California. I told them my rudder would be their rider and they strapped it to their roof rack, brought it out here for about $150 if I recall correctly.
Did the same with my gunmount pulpit. A gal drove it down from the Seattle area jammed into her Subaru Impreza believe it or not. I was impressed. I was also impressed with the cloud of pot smoke that came out of her car when she arrived at our place with her boyfriend and my pulpit. Ha ha. All’s well that ends well, who am I to judge?
Hi Mike - thank you for the offer, but I think the F30 rudder may be larger than the F28 one. This thread from 2005 mentioned that the F28 and F30 have different rudder stocks and were built in different shops.
Maybe somebody may be able to shed some light on it?
Those are some great stories about clever ways to do shipping logistics. Glad to hear that it all worked out and that you were able to get the gunmount!
[quote=sailorchris post_id=52798 time=1596596437 user_id=5964]
Hi Mike - thank you for the offer, but I think the F30 rudder may be larger than the F28 one. This thread from 2005 mentioned that the F28 and F30 have different rudder stocks and were built in different shops.
Maybe somebody may be able to shed some light on it?
Those are some great stories about clever ways to do shipping logistics. Glad to hear that it all worked out and that you were able to get the gunmount!
[/quote]
Maybe not the end of the road. When I received my spare rudder I noted the shaft diameter was different (smaller) than my installed rudder. I figured I could modify it if it was ever needed.
I am going out to the garage to measure it right now.
OK back - the topmost sleeve for the quadrant attachment is 3 inches OD, The two rudder bearings are also 3 inches OD. The GRP shaft is 2.75 inches diameter.
I have the thing tucked away in the garage behind a bunch of heavy stuff. If these shaft dimensions look promising I can pull it out and provide more detailed measurements and pictures.
I often wondered about the rudder shaft dimensions. I never got round to measuring and comparing the actual blade. Could the guy have inadvertently been parting out a 28?
BTW, a colleague in the SSS lost his rudder 200 NM offshore a couple of years ago. I believe he was sailing a Wilderness 30. He had a new rudder built in Santa Cruz. The folks down there basically designed the new rudder from scratch and, from all reports, improved boat performance to boot. So, even if you don’t have drawings you should be able to get a rudder built, my understanding is performance modeling is vastly improved from when our boats were built. Note that David went on the win the Singlehanded transpac in 2016. David also provides a pretty good technical analysis of the failure in the below posting. If you have insurance or extra boat bucks then a new build, with performance and competent engineering as a top priority, would probably be the best way to go.
<LINK_TEXT text=“https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/07/02/ … reaks-off/”>https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/07/02/man-in-san-francisco-to-hawaii-sailboat-race-rescued-after-boats-rudder-breaks-off/</LINK_TEXT>
<LINK_TEXT text=“https://www.sfbaysss.org/forum/showthre … t=herrigel”>https://www.sfbaysss.org/forum/showthread.php?1325-Domino-Status-Report-What-Happened&highlight=herrigel</LINK_TEXT>
Mike
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the interesting info…from the few drawings or other info I have been able to track down, the F28 rudder shares the same rudderstock dimensions, with three 3" OD SS collars that go through the upper and lower bearings, and the middle collar that attaches to the steering quadrant. The overall shaft length is about 39", the width of the rudder from the cutout for the skeg to the trailing edge is 17-3/4", and the width at the bottom is 10-5/8". The overall length of the rudder proper exclusive of the shaft is 54-1/4". If you actually have a F28 and not a F30 rudder on hand, it might help Chris but not me as I have already committed to having a replacement built, despite the fact that I have neither adequate insurance or extra boat bucks. Nevertheless, I have to get her home somehow.
Thinking about the idea of bringing a spare rudder offshore…and wondering how one could install it? You would need to get the old rudderstock out, which shouldn’t be that hard, but it would be a trick to get in the water and re-install the replacement. When my rudderless boat was towed in, an old-timer told me how you could use a bucket towed astern and tied to your winches to keep steering with a lost rudder.
Walter