SAIL - April 2015

The author used a 12in square piece of half-inch structural

fiberglass placed in the cockpit with a 3in angled hole cut into it to

connect the top of the rudder tube with the cockpit sole

Here we see the fiberglass plate and the rudder tube

bonded together in the cockpit sole. The author applied

three layers of 1708 biaxial fabric laminate to form a secure

connection between the cockpit sole and the rudder tube

45

other Alberg 35s have the same problem. The good news was that while

there wasn’t anything I could do about it (it was probably an issue with

the original mold) it wouldn’t affect the operation of the rudder and

any effect on performance was probably negligible. Basically, I had to

accept it and move on. (After a full season with many people on board,

nobody has noticed the problem other than me.).

To tie it all together, I mixed up a batch of epoxy thickened with Aerosil

and spread it out over the area of the cockpit sole I had left open for this

project, as well as the bottom of the fiberglass plate. I then carefully slid the

fiberglass plate over the rudder tube protruding into the cockpit and laid it

down into the thickened epoxy on the sole. After that I used strips of edge-

grain balsa to fill in the gaps around the plate and surrounding fiberglass.

Finally, I wet out a square of 1708 biaxial fabric with a star-shaped hole cut

in the center and laid it down so it adhered to both the fiberglass plate and

the new rudder tube. I weighed it all down with sand bags to let it cure.

From this point on the job was a matter of laying down three more lay-

PROJECT

BOAT

WORKS

PHOTOS BY

MATT BOWSER

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