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| Home >> Technical >> RS Aero Lower Gudgeon Failure |
was looking through the forum for this, as it append to me a few weeks back! I have #1548.
A big gust (25 kn) hit me, I beard away, when suddenly my rudder gave ugly noises and when I looked back, it stood at a 45° angle and the gudgeon disintegrated into the water. The upper part was very sturdy, as it bent the metal pin (don't know the English name) and I had to screw it out to get the rudder off the boat.
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Interesting! I had exactly the same problem about two years ago, lower gudgeon came loose during racing and top was fine. I'm #1397 (I had to double check as your 1379 confused my small brain). BTW, I hope they put the Aero plaque back on the transom.
Makes me wonder if that batch had an issue with the lower gudgeon backing reinforcement. The guy who fixed mine said there was not much there holding the original screws in place, apart from the grp hull. I didn't take it up with RS, know them well enough to expect that there would only be sympathy at best. To be fair to them, if the rudder gets grounded, this gudgeon takes the brunt. And when the racing gets tight at Hayling, the winner bank can sometimes get into the way .... so I wasn't sure if there wasn't user error involved as well.
Anyone else in that number range had problems with their lower gudgeon?
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Ok, here is an interesting one for everyone out there. I was sailing along on a nice day when I started hearing an unusual grinding noise from the back of the boat. When I stopped to take a look, I discovered that the lower gudgeon had broken off from the transom! Like, “This isn’t good.” The rudder was still attached with the upper gudgeon so I immediately headed back to the dock (from the opposite side of the lake of course) trying to be very gentle in my steering. When I took the rudder off, the lower gudgeon and transom piece fell right off.
If you look closely at the pictures, the rectangular piece of plywood delaminated from the transom carbon backing and the gudgeon screws pulled right out (along with the outer gelcoat). The upper gudgeon was not affected nor were the rudder pintles.
I was lucky enough to find a local Seattle repair outfit that had worked on other Aero repairs who could do the work right away and at a reasonable price. The repair involved adding a carbon layer to the inside of the hole, gluing the plywood section that had popped out back in, adding another layer of carbon to the outside, and using longer screws. I got to pay for this myself as RS Sailing decided this was not a warranty issue as the boat was too old (2015).
Greg Wong, Lynnwood Washington, USA
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