Last month I described my efforts to remediate Gardens' rudder and eliminate the annoying wobble resulting from the slop in the fit of the blade in the rudder stock. The possibility of fabricating a new rudder was mentioned...
That possibility has progressed to actual 'project' status. Copies of the rudder foil drawing from the plans will be used as templates to create a router jig to "carve" the foil from the blank.
The rough blank, as glued up, measures 40mm x 320mm x 1020mm. The leading and trailing edges of the rudder blank are ash (from a tree we took town six years ago). The rest of the staves are pine (from a tree we took down three years ago).
Rather satisfying to be using materials from our property.
Next step is to mill the glued-up blank down to the specified dimensions of 30mm x 300mm. I will leave the blank long to provide support to both sides during the router-carving process. Photos should illustrate that process when I get there.
