When the rudder was opened we found a couple of surprises as to the way it was made - poorly
3/8 ready rod was used to anchor the rudder to the post and these rods where only bolted to the post. The core had several types of foam core as you can see by the different colours and it was water soaked.
the black in the center is water damage
Rudder free from shaft
Although hard to see here, the play was caused by the rods wearing oblonged holes in the rudder shaft and failing foam core. An 1/8“ play here made about three inches of travel at the rudder tail which would cause the poor tracking.
Clean rudder cavity to be filled with Putty
Yup - looks good from here
I welded some stainless plates to the rudder post. There is no playing here.
Support brace tacked into place on skeg plate. Prop and shaft got a good cleaning too.
out of focus a bit, new camera but you can see the plate and the fork I fabricated to go around the keel. there will be more photos later
Here mark is mixing the first batch of construction putty for rudder bonding. Heavy duty stuff - very strong.
All damage and debris is removed from rudder shell
Mark used some Industrial strength construction putty to embed rubber plates to rudder. This is done in stages for heat disapation and quality control. The braces are temporary while putty cures.
second batch of putty
third application.
Almost a full five gallon pail of putty will be used when finished making a very solid and strong structure
almost filled. A little more then the shaping glassing and painting
filling of putty was over a three day period for proper curing
Battery box base made with clear spruce and glass sided plywood
Battery box with tray
I had to design box with some verticle play to clear engine room components. The tray has a couple of inches of verticle travel when pulled out and is solid when in operating position.
All pieces are epoxied and screwed together then primer painted
Battery Box base installed. I re-rooted almost all wiring and controls under the base instead of in front where they were. this make a much cleaner and unobstructed look when finished.
The leading and tail ends of wings are nearing completion with the additional layers of cloth and roving.
Here is the approximate size of the MK1 in position however it could be mounted a couple inches lower
MK1 on Port side. The other bases are aprox locations for the other seats and table
The Mock MK1 is using table post as temp and is a few inches higher than needed for seat position
We measured for two smaller Mk3's towards wall with existing table between them. This is the same basic locations as the original bench and table which where on the platform. There is some trim repair needed to the wall where the old platform was mounted
The day after rubber assembly - freaky weather we're having here
the river behind our place - the day before was warm - go figure I hope you liked the show Mike, have a great day.
