Doing a bit of work to restore the rudder shoe fitting as one is missing because the wrong grade of Stainless steel was used

 As part of a survey it was seen that the fixings holding the rudder shoes have been fixed on with the wrong grade of Stainless Steel, it appears that the stainless steel bolts have been A2 stainless steel and not A4 grade stainless steel which is the grade for fixing underwater fittings.

                             

With this in mind the other fixing are going to be removed and replaced with the correct grade of Stainless Steel A 4 

The anodes will need replacing as a matter of course before the boat is re-launched 

Both the shaft and the hull anodes are showing that they are working 

The port rudder is in good condition, however the fixings are going to be replaced to make sure that the same does not happen to this as it did on the starboard rudder shoe

Shaping the lower section and then screwing on the upper part before taking them apart to fit each part to the boat

First using a variable profiler, take the shape off the old section to use as a pattern for the new section.

Having removed a lot of the angle using a power planner taking the rest down with a hand plane to get to the same profile as the original part.

setting up the lower section ready to remove the large part of the angle before final shaping with a hand plane.

Several runs at the lower section and the angle starts to appear 

Once the angle is near to the finished angle the upper section is then fitted 

Then dry screwed in position so that final shaping can be made.

 

Making up the back section of the Hardy pilot Iroko rubbing strakes

A piece of the original back section of the rubbing strake which came off in a useable length to be able to use as a template for the replacement back section 

Having made the front section it is placed on the back section, so that the angle of the back section is a continuing angle to the front section 

Having clamped the sections into position the back section is marked so that the angle can be planned on to the flat section 

 

Making up the Hardy Pilot 20 Iroko Rubbing Strakes

After cutting out the blanks which make up the front sections of the Iroko rubbing strakes, it was time to cut the bevel on to the blank to give the rubbing strake its lower angle to meet up with the base section.

Once that was cut there was a far amount of shaping as the bench saw could only get a close angle, not the exact angle. So with the aid of an electric power planer, it was able to get the correct angle.

A profile pattern was made of the original shape so that when making the new rubbing strake it will be the same profile as the original 

To make the rounded edge of the top of the rubbing strake we sometimes use electric tools to get the original profile

 

Back to work after a short break and back in the thick of it.

Before the works break, we were working on renewing the iroko rubbing strakes on the Hardy Pilot 20. 

The old rubbing strakes behind the front part were completely rotten and so we were able to get old of the covering pieces which we are now taking a profile of so that we can make a new front piece to the same profile as the piece.

Using a profile gauge we are able to get the profile of the old piece and so make a pattern of this and use the pattern to make the new profile

Here is one of the back pieces getting planed to shape along its length as there is a curve along its length to mirror the sheerline of the boat where this attaches to the hull with bolts along its length.

Another job getting sorted is the repairs to the Westerly Centaur which came to us with the blade full of water and parts of the rudder in need of extra fibreglassing where it had become thin over the years when the boat dried out between high water on its mooring.