CNC-machined rudder plugs, a composite mold, and vacuum bagging: this page documents the build of Fram’s carbon rudder blade—twice, including one spare.
Rudder construction part one, the rudder blade
During the build of my boat I established many contacts with other boat builders, both in the Netherlands and abroad. The exchange of experiences proved extremely valuable—and it is also one of the fun side effects of a DIY project.
Here in the Netherlands there are two fellow builders who are both active in CNC technology: Bert (F39) as a professional and Nico (F82SR) as a hobbyist. The fabricated parts and the mold for the daggerboard were made by Bert. More recently, Nico offered to machine the two rudder plug halves for my F39.
Nico is an airline pilot and spent lonely evenings in hotel rooms writing hundreds of lines of CNC code for my F39 rudder. Great job, Nico—thanks again. Once the rudder blade mold is finished it is only a small step to produce a spare rudder blade, so I made two.
This photo gallery (48 images) shows the CNC-machined rudder plugs, the composite mold, and the full vacuum-bagged lay-up of the carbon rudder blade—built twice, including one spare.
