ARC Arrives - Caribbean Compass

—Continued from previous page
Then we waited for the epoxy to set, but something wasn’t right. As we watched,
the West System 309 epoxy mixture continued to run out of the bottom of the rudder
sleeve — it wouldn’t harden. As happy hour approached, we decided to drop the
rudder and try again the next day with a 306 mix.
After morning coffee and crosswords, we started in again. The rudder shaft was
thoroughly cleaned and re-waxed. The sleeve was sanded with 60-grit sandpaper
wrapped around a broom handle and washed with acetone. The rudder was inserted
and the process repeated. This time the epoxy hardened. The rudder was broken
free and exercised back and forth while a solution of dish soap was poured from the
top to act as a lubricant. Back and forth, back and forth — for hours, but the action
was much too tight. It was so tight that it’s doubtful I would be able to steer the boat
for a three-hour watch, and Freeman the autopilot would burn itself out right away.
It looked like we’d made a worse problem than the one we were trying to fix!
We didn’t have much time to be depressed over this situation. When you live in the
same boatyard every year for a month or two, you become part of the local community,
and it didn’t take long for word of our situation to become general knowledge.
Typical of the spirit that guides this organization, help soon arrived in the person of
Donald Stollmeyer, Operations Manager and a General Partner in Power Boats in
Chaguaramas, Trinidad, and a builder of custom catamarans in his spare time.
Donald’s presence soon attracted the neighboring yachties and before we knew it,
our rudder became an interesting problem to solve rather than a catastrophe.
Some special K.I.S.S.
ingredients: part of
an old acetone bottle,
a hunk of foam and
a plastic mailing tube
for charts
The first step was to take the rudder out again, clean it up and see just how bad
the problem was. To our relief, we were able to work the rudder slowly out — in fact,
it was easy because the heavy rudder was held so tightly that no blocks were needed
to keep it from dropping suddenly into its hole! It’s strange to see a rudder literally
hanging in mid-air. After washing and microfining, the rudder action was much
better. A little sanding and we would be able to steer normally, but there was still
the same slop in the rudder. The epoxy had not migrated more than halfway down
the sleeve, and the greatest area of wear was at the bottom.
The Captain wasn’t about to settle for anything less than making it right. Our
“committee” got to work. Using a pair of red plastic calipers, it was determined that
the sleeve was three millimeters larger than the shaft, with a deeper groove at the
very bottom. Looking around under the boat, an empty plastic acetone bottle was
found and measured. It was slightly fatter than the shaft. Using blue masking tape
as a straight edge, a thin slice was cut out of the bottle and the excess cut out. This
was inserted into the rudder sleeve at the top of the deeper groove as a guide for
where the first fill of epoxy would stop. Using a stick found under the boat, Donald
mixed the epoxy, troweled it into the groove and removed the guide strip. A four-inch
section of the cut-down acetone bottle with a hunk of foam rubber inside was inserted
to push the epoxy against the sides of the groove. A piece of wood was taped over
To make manhandling
the
heavy rudder
easier, one of the
thick scaffold
boards was used
as a lever
the bottom of the hole to keep it all in place, and everybody went to lunch while the
epoxy hardened. The groove was now filled evenly with the rest of the sleeve.
For the next application of epoxy, graphite was added to make a slippery surface
to allow the rudder shaft to move more easily in the tightened sleeve. The sleeve was
wet sanded and washed with acetone. Looking around, a stiff plastic mailing tube
for charts was found under a neighboring boat. It was two millimeters smaller than
the final rudder sleeve needed to be. Using two-inch plastic tape, the tube was built
up to the desired final thickness and coated with the mold-release wax. The epoxy
mixture was troweled up into the sleeve, the mailing tube was inserted and turned
gently to help distribute the graphite epoxy around the walls of the sleeve. It was
then taped in place and left to harden overnight.
Next morning, the tube was removed. It was time to see if the rudder shaft would go into
the sleeve. To make manhandling the heavy rudder easier, one of the thick scaffold boards
was used as a lever. Two men would lift the rudder, one would stand on the board to hold
it up while the fourth shifted the heavy wooden blocks across the water-filled hole.
Of course, the rudder would not go in the first time. There were some high places,
especially around the very bottom, that needed to be smoothed down. Flipping the
mailing tube around, 220-grit wet sandpaper was attached to the tube with spray
adhesive. This was used to sand the inside of the sleeve. After several rounds of sanding
and re-inserting the rudder, a proper fit was achieved — no more slop and no
more thumps. The rudder moved easily.
Thanks to Donald and the committee of yachties at Power Boats, Forever Young
was ready to go back in the water with her crew of three: Captain, First Mate and
Freeman the autopilot.
JANUARY 2008 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 33