Draining rudder before winter freeze up?

[reverie]

Here's a question for all northern sailors who store their boat on the hard during freezing winter conditions.

A number of sailors at our marina drill a couple of holes in the bottom of their rudder to drain any water before the winter freeze up. They do this to ensure any water doesn't remain in the rudder and expand when frozen, resulting in a burst or cracked rudder. The theory is that most rudders eventually begin to leak at the rudder post due to dissimilar materials. In the spring, the holes are plugged with epoxy - then re-drilled the following winter.

I've not done this thus far - and so far so good. But my boat is getting older (now 10 years).

Has anyone drilled their Jeanneau rudder and found water in it?

Has anyone had their Jeanneau rudder split due to frozen water inside?

Many thanks,

John
2004 SO35

[MalcolmP]

Sounds reasonable to me. I know rudders do often get rather wet. I suspect our rudder maybe "wet" as we have gelshield and this year I noticed some small bubbles just on the rudder which may be first sign of some osmotic action.

Perhaps in the Spring when you fill the hole(s) with epoxy you could might be able to form a thread, perhaps with waxed machine screw, so that in future years you only have to remove what effectively would be a drain plug

[reverie]

Thanks, Malcolm.

Very interesting. Just my rudder is also showing small blisters - only on one side, about half way up. There were about 20 of them. The rudder and hull had a barrier coat applied when initially commissioned in 2005, and the hull continues to be perfect - no blisters whatsoever. (Not surprising given our short 6 month sailing seasons . )

I had not considered that the moisture causing the blisters might be coming from the inside of the rudder.

Great idea about using a waxed machine screw to install a permanent drain. Will post pictures when I eventually give this a try.

Cheers,

John

[reverie]

Sorry --- just to clarify. I have no blisters whatsoever on the hull. Just the rudder has blisters. Both had barrier coat applied during commissioning.

John

[MalcolmP]

Nov 29, 2014 17:06:14 GMT reverie said:

Great idea about using a waxed machine screw to install a permanent drain. Will post pictures when I eventually give this a try.

Cheers,

John

Guess you will need to put a hole at the top of the blade as well, to ensure air can get in to drain properly. I might do this as well next time the boat is lifted - although form the thread using a s/s machine screw, but perhaps then actually use a nylon one as the plug to avoid any more odd current interactions, say with the rudder shaft

[rxc]

I used to do this on my old Catalina, and I did get water draining, every year. A friend with the same boat eventually dropped the rudder, dried it out, did some major excavation where the rudder post enters the rudder, and re-sealed it with an elastomer. He also poured quite a bit of penetrating epoxy and then soupy epoxy down the rudder post, hoping to fill any interior voids. I think he no longer has any water in his rudder, but the boat is down by the stern quite a bit <g>.

In any case, the biggest problem with this leakage is what the water is doing to the insides of the rudder, specifically to the metal structure providing stiffness to the fiberglass. I do believe that the water can get quite acidic and do severe damage to the metal.

[tedp]

Last winter when I hauled out my SO32, I found several smallish lumps on the rudder. I drilled a hole in each and out came a few drops of liquid smelling of styrene. I suspect this is an early sign of osmosis in the rudder. Leakage past the rudder post didn't occur to me, nor did draining the rudder as suggested by other posters.

The boat is wintering in the water this time - when I haul her out in spring I'll inspect again.

I'm not sure whether this happened to any Jeanneau, but I heard of several instances of rudder failure in modern yachts, the rudder fabric breaking away from the steel frame.