Cracked rudder advice?

[dfloeter]

Leaning on the collective wisdom again.
I dropped the rudder to pull the shaft and found a crack on the forward side of the rudder, at the top and above the step. It looks like it's been there a while and is well painted over. Due to it's position the crack was not visible before.
I am thinking I need to grind the area back, V grind the crack, fill with epoxy and put on a few layers of cloth as strapping to hold it all together. 
Is this overkill? How much stress do we have up there?

[Stu Jackson]

Dietrich,

Good you found that.  The most pressure is closer to the top and near the shaft.  Regardless, your "cure" sounds very appropriate.

There are a number of rudder articles in the Tech Notes Online.  I find the Knowledgebase helpful in finding them.  Many have to deal with "leaky rudders" which comes from the type of issue you describe.

Good luck.

[Ken Juul]

When I upgraded to the new eliptical rudder I disected my old one.  took about 2 hours of banging and sawing, they are made very strong.  I would start with the grinding to see how deep the crack is.  May only be on the top layer.  If deeper I would call Catalina and ask, they are very helpful in situations like this.

[dfloeter]

Thanks Ken, I just ground out the crack and it went all the way through to the post. The FG skin was cracked all the way down to the step.  There is also a crack on top.  At this point I'm going to grind the main crack on a good taper and reglass it.  I think that is what Catalina would likely recommend.  Onward with the belt sander!

[Rick Roberts]

If you ever consider switching to a elliptical rudder. I have one for sale  PM is you're interested.

[dfloeter]

Thanks but I think mine may already be elliptical, and now much stronger.   5 layers of cloth including 2 of roving and it laid up nicely.  Thanks all.

[Ron Hill]

Detrich : Look in the Mainsheet tech notes and I recommended gouging out the area where the stainless column goes into the rudder layup and fill it with 5200 as well as the your vertical crack.

A few thoughts

[dfloeter]

Thanks Ron and I think I can still do just that and I have a tube of 5200 that still seems usable.