I have just recently broken the rudder on my gk24. Does any one have any hints or tips for me it broke across the lower pintle. Ihave thought about replacing it with a hard wood and west epoxy, or has any one out there got a spare rudder???. the other option was to cut the rudder in half insert some steel work to rejoin the two halves and then west epoxy back together any help on this subject would be much appreciated.

Regards Richard [/b]

Hi Richard,
I'm not really the best person to give advice in how to repair a broken rudder but you can purchase replacements from a company in Gosport who do a lot of westerly spares (although a rudder would probably be very expensive).

A second option would be to borrow a rudder and make a mould to build a new one. one of the other owners on the forum has a spare rudder but a mould has not yet been made, I could put you in touch.

Lastly, the GK24 Website and PBO have recently reported on a GK being damaged beyond repair in Wales, if the rudder is still in one piece it may be worth making them an offer?

Sorry, possibly not the answer you were looking for but hope it helps.

Trafalgar Marine, about ?1800 !
hock:

I think ?Andy has a spare that could be used to make a mould from.

Alternatively why not make a wooden core plug up about 40cm high and epoxy glue the two pieces to it.

Then rebuild the outer skin with epoxy-glass or carbon fibre

OK - I admit it, I do have a spare rudder. Mainly because I'm paranoid after breaking god knows how many dinghy rudders and centreboards over the years. I'm happy to lend my spare rudder to somebody to produce a mould - but I would like it back! The rudder in question is as far as I know an original Westerly one which needs a bit of TLC where its been bashed over the years but it has never been drilled or mounted so is absolutely virgin - it also weighs a ton!

If somebody wants to take a shot at this I'll be back home in Hampshire some weekends (I've been exiled to Plymouth!) to hand over the rudder.

Cheers

Andy

(I've been exiled to Plymouth!)

exiled....i'd call it a holiday myself

Seriously, if anyone can ever track down a chap called Roger Gale, who used to own Folly 2 down in Falmouth (and I think he later bought a boatyard somewhere down there), he had a set of GK24 rudder moulds made up for use by the Falmouth fleet back in the 90s.

They must still exist, it's just a matter of tracking them down...

Cheers,
Steve
GK24 Gate Krasher IV, GK211
Plymouth !

Hi
Thanks for all the tips i will probably go with the core plug idea but Andy i have a friend who used to be a mould maker so will speak to him and let you know what he has to say even if i do not use it would be good to have a mould just in case any body else has the same problem. Once again thanks for all the tips speak to you soon.

Regards Richard

The rudder is really bendy compared with what could be achieved if built of more modern materials - I can remember giving the bottom of a Whitbread 60 rudder a wobble and found it pretty immovable , and that was about twice the length of the GK24 rudder that moved about 2 cm easily as the rudder bent.

And I was sent some pictures by a Dutch GK owner (lost in a virus scanner caused destruction of a mailbox folder) of another GK with cracks across the rudder by the lower fitting.. In his case I think the boat went sideways onto the beach.


Here is the situation in which I was able to feel up a Whitbread 60 ...

Richard, let me know if the rudder is needed & I'll sort out a means of getting it too you.

Steve, saw Gate Krasher in Queen Annes Battery. Maybe a beer sometime? I'm over in Saltash Passage at the mo. but may have to find somewhere new for the next 6 months - or bring the GK down and live on that

Mike, does your wife know you feel rudders??!!

Cheers

Andy

Upgrade lost his rudder on the RIR 2004, just below bottom pintles (westerly very nicley made the bottom pintles too narrow so they thoughtfully ground the front corners of the rudder back to make the pintles fit, looks remarkably like a stress raiser.......) WORTH CHECKING ON ALL RUDDERS!! Anyway, he had a wooden rudder made and glassed for ?1500. Its stiff and lighter than the normal rudder.

I would be interested in coming in if we could get together and obtain the moulds and make some new rudders. I've got a spare GK24 rudder in the garage complete with metalwork if you want to borrow it (I'm in Southampton). Its a bit tatty and I had planned to investigate doing up eventually. This rudder was replaced with an aluminium one on another GK24 supposidely to give more stern bouyancy and have a stronger lighter rudder by someone in Whitby! They do strange things up North....

Thanks Chris but am nearly ready to launch again we have bored into both sections and are going to dowel with stainless rod, but am still trying to find price of making mould So watch this space i will keep you informed.

I assume that the stainless bars are really only there to realign the assembly before rebuilding the skin.

The strength of the rudder is in the skin unless there is some structure inside that can take compression on one side and tension on the other - a steel bar by itself will get bent unless its quite thick - remember rudder stock bars on other boats are at least 25mm (eg H-Boat displacement 1400Kg with a similar rig) , and where the rudder breaks on the GK is more or less equivalent to where the stock joins the rudder on other boats.




The real question that comes from this is what makes the rudders break: I have heard of one on the rocks in Northern Ireland, another at sea after groundings while drying out against a harbour wall at Itchenor. Then there was the Dutchman who had one damaged but not broken when the boat went aground.
And a friend of mine had the metal straps fail at the front of the rudder rather than the rudder when he was off Bembridge in a force 6.

Andy,

must have looked more like "Green Krasher" than Gate Krasher when you saw her in QAB - I couldn't believe how much algae has grown on the deck in the last few weeks. It came off looking like mud !

Chris, that's not the first boat i've heard of with an ally rudder to replace the regular one. A GK24 called "Hurly Burly" which used to be based in Plymouth had an ally rudder too. Didn't seem to make him go much faster than the rest of us though ! It was a slightly different section to the standard rudder - looked a bit fatter. I guess that they couldn't risk the ally being too thin at the leading and trailing edges.

Cheers,
Steve
Gate Krasher IV
GK211