Re lashing rudders...

[Frank Higgott]

I recently bought a Tiki 26 (plan #294). She needs a small amount of work to get her up and running. 

The rudders have been removed by cutting the lashings. The lashings themselves were epoxied into the lashing holes. This has caused a head ache to remove them. I've tried drilling a couple out but no matter how hard I try it is impossible to keep the bit in line with the original hole, making a mess of them.

I'm wondering if I can drill the old lashings out, Fill the holes with epoxy and then re drill. I really like the idea of lashings and would rather not go down the gudgeon and pintel track.

Has anyone out there got a better solution? Thanks for any ideas.

[Maxim Jurgens]

Drill out the old lashings of both rudder and stern post Fill the holes with epoxy. Buy small diameter ( 6-8 mm) aluminium tube. Re drill the holes and use a pipecleaner or similar to coat the inside of the holes with epoxy resin.

Cut short lengths of the alu tube to fit the holes . Use a counter sinker to chamfer the inside of the short tubes. 

Insert the tubes in the holes and fix them in place with 3M 5200 or sikaflex. Lash rudder in place .

Big advantage now is that you can remove and replace the rudder ( for repair for example ) easily with the boat in the water and without the chance of water ingress in the grain of the wood of stern post or rudder.

Maxim Jurgens

Siam Sailing, Phuket 

[Frank Higgott]

Fantastic solution, thankyou!

[patrick lennon]

Nice idea Maxim.

I know it  that is very hard to drill out the lashings, have tried. On the rudder you could use a router to rout out the holes and fill with epoxy and then  re-drill, as Scott did With Tiki Element. There is quite a detailed explanation on Scots website.

Best of luck.

Pat

[Frank Higgott]

Thanks Patrick, that's a great blog. I can see i,ll be visiting that site more than once or twice within the next few months.

[Ann and Neville Clement]

Our Tiki 46,  Peace IV, has lashed rudders and they have worked fine with the original ropes for over 50,000 miles so far.  We followed the plan and drilled the holes and coated them with thickened epoxy.  The lashings themselves were fixed using sealant and there has been no problem at all.  It all looks brand new.

Some folks drill very large holes, fill the holes all the way with thickened epoxy, then drill smaller holes in the epoxy, use the counter sink, ease the holes nicely, and then tie on the rudders using sealant.

Lashing the rudders really works and it is just a neat and sweet solution.

Ann

[Frank Higgott]

Thank you for the reply Ann. I really like the idea of the rudder lashings also and have seen them work very well on other Wharrams. However I think the problem here is the fact they were epoxied in place. Sealant is the answer I think, then when it's time to renew them, removing is not a problem.

[patrick lennon]

Hi Frank. Could you tell me what the final solution was for removing the rudder lashings?

[Frank Higgott]

Gidday Patrick,

I drilled the lashings out leaving a larger hole than what was there originally. I'm not sure exactly how I will re drill them yet. The rudder holes were fine, they obviously didn't glue them in. I will probably fill the void with thickened epoxy, re glass the trailing edge of the skeg and then re drill through the epoxy. I'm wondering if the small aluminium tubing as in the first reply is necessary or not. The tricky part will be lining the holes in the rudder up with the skeg then marking and then drilling accurately. I'm putting it off until last.

At the moment I'm working on replacing almost all of the belting as the old belting is rotten in places.

[Maxim Jurgens]

You can just use the existing holes in skegs and rudders. If the newly made holes are out by a few mm that does not matter . Advantage of using the alu tubes is two fold: 1 it  completely avoids the chance of the rudder lashing ropes cutting into the wood of the skeg or the rudder. 2 as the tubes are glued in with sikaflex or 5200  you do not need to seal the holes in the tubes where the rudder lashings go through . In case the rudder needs to be removed for repair you do not need to dry out the boat , or drill out lashings  and re seal them.  Removing and remounting the rudder becomes a job which takes mere minutes. Very convenient .

[Frank Higgott]

Hello Maxim,

Thanks for the explanation, I understand it better now. I assumed the tubes were epoxied in and the lashings were sealed in with sikaflex, but that is not the case. The tubes are fitted with sikaflex and the lashings are threaded just on their own. Certainly would make rudder maintenance a lot simpler. 

[patrick lennon]

Hi Frank . I epoxied my rudder lashings in place as per plans specs. I thought that because ech individual turn in the lashing is epoxied that if one of the lashing turns became damaged one wouldn't have a complete failure. Anyway hard to guess what the designer was thinking. Maxims tube idea sounds very clean and easy. Could I ask why you replaced the lashings ? Was there damage ? Cheers Pat

[Omar M. Rashash]

Like many things in boatbuilding, there's more than one way to do something. Usually, the method given by JWD is "good enough". However, there's also "better" and "superior".

Slathering the holes with epoxy, threading the rudders, and then sealing with epoxy will work for a given period of time. However, there will also be problems sooner than if another method was used. The cordage will wick moisture past the epoxy and into any unprotected wood. This will lead to rot and failure.

The more accepted method when drilling any hole in wood, is to drill oversize, fill with thickened epoxy, and re-drill to the required smaller size once cured. The addition of a marine grade sealant may also be beneficial, but isn't required since you have 100% protection of the wood around the hole. Inserting aluminum tubing could work, but now you are introducing another potential area for water to migrate between the tubing and the wood.

Scott's method is superior because he lets in a piece of rot-resistant wood, Teak in his example, before he drills the holes. Even if the cordage wears away some of the epoxy in the hinge joint, you'll still have good wood holding everything together.

As a general rule, when putting holes in a wooden boat, you're going to have to protect the newly exposed wood fibers with epoxy and prevent the migration of water by use of a sealant. Epoxy is too brittle and won't provide the protection a flexible sealant will. My experience has shown me that epoxy isn't as waterproof as we would like it to be.

Omar