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I have just recently completed this repair using the above method and dowel inserts. Another hint is to make the dowel plugs slightly longer (5mm or so) than required and cut them down the centre (5mm or so) so that when the screw is inserted the dowel opens or spreads slightly inside the hull to form something a bit like a "wall plug" and gives a little more resistance to them pulling out again.
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28/01/2022 09:52:00
SeaShaw
Posts: 1
Hi. Is the timber /plywood sound, or is it soft /have the ply layers separated a bit if water has gotten in /the screws had started to work loose?
See what RS recommends, but one option might be to drill out round holes to a matching diameter of suitable hardwood dowels. It's OK if some parts of the holes are a little bit irregular, as long as the dowels are still a reasonable firm (not tight) press fit, slight voids can be filled with thickened epoxy glue.
Once you have reasonably sound timber, paint epoxy liberally to the inside of the round holes, allow to soak in to the timber fibres (you might need to apply a couple of times as the epoxy soaks in). Then wipe out any excess epoxy, mix up thick epoxy with suitable high strength glue filler (e.g. colloidal silica), coat your dowels, including coating the ends to seal them, and press fit them in with light taps of a small hammer.. It is advisable to have a slight chamfer of a millimetre or so on the end of the dowels so that they don't jam or tear out the play as they are tapped into place.
Once set, including a thin epoxy layer over the outside face of the dowels to make them flush with the rear face of the transom, drill new screw sized holes in the dowels to fix the gudgeons in place, making sure accurately placed and aligned so that the rudder is hung central and vertical. Also make sure to seal the face of the gudgeons and screw holes with marine Sikaflex to prevent future water ingress.
I do recommend that you do a test run on a piece of scrap test plywood first, and if you're even a little bit uncertain, take your boat to a professional boat builder, whether using the above repair method, or whatever RS recommends. They last thing you want is to do further damage either while doing your repair or if you repair fails in the future.
Reply
See what RS recommends, but one option might be to drill out round holes to a matching diameter of suitable hardwood dowels. It's OK if some parts of the holes are a little bit irregular, as long as the dowels are still a reasonable firm (not tight) press fit, slight voids can be filled with thickened epoxy glue.
Once you have reasonably sound timber, paint epoxy liberally to the inside of the round holes, allow to soak in to the timber fibres (you might need to apply a couple of times as the epoxy soaks in). Then wipe out any excess epoxy, mix up thick epoxy with suitable high strength glue filler (e.g. colloidal silica), coat your dowels, including coating the ends to seal them, and press fit them in with light taps of a small hammer.. It is advisable to have a slight chamfer of a millimetre or so on the end of the dowels so that they don't jam or tear out the play as they are tapped into place.
Once set, including a thin epoxy layer over the outside face of the dowels to make them flush with the rear face of the transom, drill new screw sized holes in the dowels to fix the gudgeons in place, making sure accurately placed and aligned so that the rudder is hung central and vertical. Also make sure to seal the face of the gudgeons and screw holes with marine Sikaflex to prevent future water ingress.
I do recommend that you do a test run on a piece of scrap test plywood first, and if you're even a little bit uncertain, take your boat to a professional boat builder, whether using the above repair method, or whatever RS recommends. They last thing you want is to do further damage either while doing your repair or if you repair fails in the future.
Reply
28/01/2022 09:37:00
RonF 'Delphine'
Posts: 28
27/01/2022 14:37:00
Peter Barton
Posts: 4664
Hi fellow RS Aero sailors, I recently had my transom gudgeons ripped of, from wear hulll holes. What product do you recommend using to fill the holes before putting new gudgeons and screws?
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27/01/2022 14:29:00
gasperisailracing
Posts: 34
