OK...you can go see the set where there are several other photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamseacats/sets/72057594056084945/


I tried two different techniques to repair the rudder. First I made some white opaque plastic spacers to fill the hole and keep resin from accumulating. They were later visible with a bright light so I could redrill through the repair fiberglass and extract the spacers. They popped right out.

1) electrical tape compression. I tightly wrapped electrical tape around the rudder head after placing a couple of layers relatively heavy weave knytex fiberglass around the area and then clamped some pieces of wood on the wide flat areas to get compression on the fiberglass repair. It worked very well and I was impressed.

2) I vacuum bagged the repair - I expected this to work well and it did...but you couldn't tell the difference between the electrical tape compression and the vacuum bag compression. The vacuum bag setup required a lot more equipment.

Both rudders held up very well - three Tybee 500s and a bunch of sailing between with no sign of stress.


DSC06828 by Team Seacats, on Flickr


DSC06829 by Team Seacats, on Flickr


DSC06830 by Team Seacats, on Flickr


DSC06858 by Team Seacats, on Flickr


DSC06855 by Team Seacats, on Flickr

[img]http://farm1.staticflickr.com/38/101854093_9accebea1d.jpg[/img]
DSC06862 by Team Seacats, on Flickr