Hi all! I'm looking at buying a 2011 36' cruiser. It has a survey from a few months ago that revealed a 4" vertical crack in the fiberglass at the top of the rudder alongside the shaft. Theory is that boat touched bottom during reverse storm surge and side loaded rudder. It then was in water for approx 1yr before damage was discovered. not sure if it was sailed much during that year. How concerned should I be? will I be lucky enough that it can be a fiberglass repair or will it likely be worse? Should i be concerned about the keel?
I welcome to any feedback.
Just blobbing on some glass from the outside will not do. The rudder needs to be split and repaired, how much work that is depends on if the shaft is bent or not. If the shaft is bent, a new rudder is probably the way to go, you can ask Jefa for a quote.
Further damage may have occured to the rudder bearing housings, the lower one acting as pivot and breaking free from the hull and the upper one should be thoroughly inspected as well. From the picture, the lower bearing housing looks not quite right, but it's hard to tell from this angle and at least on our boat it was glassed in quite firmly. It needs to be inspected with the rudder out to see if it's loose or not.
Can't tell you about the keel from here other than it appears to be missing a few chunks! Inspect the keel, hull matrix and keel bolts inside the boat.
Quote from: Yngmar on Today at 00:22Just blobbing on some glass from the outside will not do. The rudder needs to be split and repaired, how much work that is depends on if the shaft is bent or not. If the shaft is bent, a new rudder is probably the way to go, you can ask Jefa for a quote.
Further damage may have occured to the rudder bearing housings, the lower one acting as pivot and breaking free from the hull and the upper one should be thoroughly inspected as well. From the picture, the lower bearing housing looks not quite right, but it's hard to tell from this angle and at least on our boat it was glassed in quite firmly. It needs to be inspected with the rudder out to see if it's loose or not.
Can't tell you about the keel from here other than it appears to be missing a few chunks! Inspect the keel, hull matrix and keel bolts inside the boat.
Thanks for the reply. I didn't think it would be as simple as just throwing on some fiberglass (although the seller would like to believe that!). The wheel feels a little rougher than I'd like so spying plan on dropping rudder and replacing bearings anyways. I'm not sure if the roughness can be caused from sitting unused??? Otherwise, the boat is very clean. I don't mind doing the work of it is repairable. I did get a quote from Jefa for a new rudder. As far as the keel bolts are concerned, i think they looked good from above. I couldn't see any cracking and there was only about a half teaspoon of water. didn't see any rust stains, either. how susceptible are they to damage?
Usually the bilge should be dust dry. If not, i would strongly suggest a diligent survey. Integral damages aren't easy to see. After groundings there are delaminations between the hull and the bottom grid possible. Repairs of these issues will cost a lot.
Yes, the rudder bearings can get stiff out of the water but in your case it may also be that difficulty turning the wheel comes from a bent rudder shaft, loose bearing housing or a sudden impact having damaged the steering linkage.