FreedomYachts.org

Does anyone know what the rudder on an F25 is made of?

They sure seem heavy enough, and a local repair guy said he thought mine might be made of metal - even lead. If you peer into the hole where the tiller bolt goes thru in looks to me as if there is some plywood in the center portion, but that seems like kind of a sill thing to do to me.

They are made out of fiberglass filled with balsa core on either side of a fiberglass center membrane. I opened mine up to remove water logged balsa core which I replaced with foam core. I can post pictures later today. They are susceptible to cracking down the center line and soaking up water in the balsa core.

Jim D.

Thanks for the reply. I thought I had read something similar somewhere else on this site, but couldn't find it.

Seems like a really stupid construction technique for a rudder to me. Something solid and waterproof would make more sence. Does a waterlogged/rotten core make the rudder susceptible to failure, or just make it heavy?

Both.

can somebody please post what the a F25 rudder should weigh, would be nice to know if mine is water logged or not. I will weigh mine and post it this week, lets do a comparison
cheers,
yarrow

I will weigh my rudders tomorrow. Having opened up one rudder I do not think a water logged rudder will necessarily lead to failure. The outer shell and center membrane are thick and strong. Over the 2007 winter I noticed that my rudder kept weeping water at the bottom. A little investigation found a crack down the center of the bottom. Drilling random holes on both sides it became obvious that the balsa core had soaked up water both at the top and bottom of the rudder. I cut two "doors" on both sides of the rudder, scraped out the rotten balsa wood and replaced it with synthetic core product.
see pictures.

I found one more nice picture showing the wet core in my rudder

My rudder weighs 67 lbs. (without the tiller attached).

Those pictures of the rotten core bring back sweet memories of the major deck recore I did on my Tartan 41 some time back.

Jack

the rudder I repaired weighs 71 lbs while the rudder from one of my junk boats weighs 82 lbs. This heavy rudder has the same cracks on the center line as the rudder I repaired.

jim d