In a somewhat freak combination of events, I was walking my NE Dory along a dock in choppy water when the tiller arm got caught in a railing and snapped off from rudder head. I’m a pretty novice boat maker, so I’m looking for advice on repair.
Could it be as easy as epoxying the wound and clamping tight. Will that give me enough strength? Or should I grind out the fillet and re-fillet along the broken edge, as well? Should I attempt to add 1/4 inch dowels through the rudder into the arm – or would that do more harm than good? Do I need to lay fiberglass along the rudder extension – that seems like much bigger endeavor that I’d prefer to avoid, at least until winter (e.g., removing varnish, adding glass, epoxy, more epoxy, sanding, varnishing, etc)?
Here are two pictures of the damage: https://i.imgur.com/99C1qWH.jpeg and https://i.imgur.com/KvDUVij.jpeg .
Any advice would be much appreciated!
I’ve attached some pictures. I didn’t like the idea of having to store or transport a fixed L-shaped piece that was the rudder stock/arm arrangement as per original NE Dory plans. During initial construction I added a bit of reenforcement and thickness to the top of the rudder head and used an oak dowell (1 or 1.25 inches diameter, can’t remember which) to place through the hole I drilled for it. I also didn’t like the idea of possibly breaking the long spruce tiller stick, so substituted a piece of rattan pole - very durable and flexible. The joint between the two is a simple line through a 5/16 hole drilled through both, then easily lashed. You’ll note the lashing at the rudder head, too. Finally, you’ll see one picture taken after sailing the boat for 5 years - I modified the rudder pivot angle by adding a fin to the transom, and modified the rudder shape. You can find my discussion of that mod elsewhere in the forum. Again, I think it an improvement. All things you might consider. I really like being able to easily disassemble the rudder from the tiller arm pieces and easily store and transport everything, or if I’m in for a long row with all the sailing gear stowed onboard.
I neglected to mention there is a hole drilled through the tiller ling piece (with the line placed through that hole) , too. The hole/line through it establishes how far into the head the tiller link piece can be pushed before you start lashing. Thus that lashing is “captured” - it doesn’t show in the pictures, but the tiller link piece cannot be pulled out throught the rudder head due to this arrangement.
Also neglected to mention that I did fiberglass the top half of the rudder head/cheeks during initial construction,.
