eyebolts embedded in epoxy

Welcome to PocketShip.net! This bulletin board is for builders of the Chesapeake Light Craft-John C. Harris "PocketShip" design, a 15-foot micro cruiser sailboat built from a kit or plans.

For more information on PocketShip, click here: http://www.clcboats.com/pocketship

This site gathers PocketShip builders in one place. Here you can share photos, tips, questions, and---eventually---your sailing adventures in PocketShip! CLC will also post design updates and tips here as they come up.

We'll try to knock down spam as quickly as possible.

Moderator: John C. Harris

Forum rules
Spam or commercial posts will be deleted.
This is a civil forum: no flames or drunken tirades.
Please stay on-topic.
PocketShip's Web Page: http://www.clcboats.com/pocketship
If you need CLC customer service: http://www.clcboats.com/forms/contact_us.html
We'll try to delete spam as soon as it appears.

Rudder Eyebolt failure

Postby mark48 on Thu Aug 19, 2021 2:29 pm

Greetings all PS owners and builders,

Puffin, my CLC PS (launched July, 2018) sustained a semi-catastrophic failure of its rudder's upper eyebolt while at its mooring last week. Luckily a passing sailor noted the rudder dangling off the transom and lashed rudder and tiller to minimize motion until I retrieved the boat for a closer examination. The photos below provide more graphic documentation, but suffice it to report that the eyebolt simply fractured about a half-inch within the rudder leaving the rudder attached solely by the lower eyebolt and the tiller (which I typically lash to prevent untoward rudder motion while Puffin is moored). The dangling rudder abraded the rudder's forward face (photo), tiller, and transom opening.

I now ask all readers for help and advice:

1. Why did this happen? I installed the rudder's eyebolts exactly as described in the PS manual (pp 256 - 259). Some PS Forum writers have noted above that embedding SS bolts in epoxy is a set-up for failure, but John Harris has done this for years without issue. (BTW, my epoxy was MAS, not WEST.)

2. What do I do now? How do I extract the stub of the eybolt from the rudder (without further damaging the rudder? If I can restore the rudder stock sufficiently somehow, should I reinstall the rudder per the manual - or do something different entirely? Thicker bolts?

3. Should I be concerned with the rudder's lower eyebolt? Other eyebolts? Did I have a metallurgically defective upper rudder eyebolt (among the otherwise excellent CLC-supplied hardware packages)?

4. From the looks of the abraded wood, these rudder surfaces require sanding to wood, repeated epoxy application, and repainting (as will the tiller and transom). Agree?

Thank you all in advance for any advice or suggestions you post. If this had to happen, I suppose I should be grateful that it happened while Puffin was moored rather than underway, but I think that's likely the end of my sailing season. :(

Mark Nunlist
Attachments
Rudder abrasions.jpeg
Rudder abrasions.jpeg (237.86 KiB) Viewed 1461 times
Upper Rudder eyebolt residual.jpeg
Upper Rudder eyebolt residual.jpeg (231.18 KiB) Viewed 1458 times
Eyebolt fragment.jpeg
Eyebolt fragment.jpeg (145.34 KiB) Viewed 1440 times
mark48
 
Posts: 156
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 9:55 pm

Re: eyebolts embedded in epoxy

Postby [email protected] on Fri Aug 20, 2021 11:52 am

What is the diameter of that bolt?

Doug
[email protected]
 
Posts: 183
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2020 2:47 pm
Location: Princeton, NJ

Re: eyebolts embedded in epoxy

Postby mark48 on Fri Aug 20, 2021 1:30 pm

Hi Doug,

The bolt is 5/16" in diameter as best I can tell. It was one of the four "WIC#6492 Rudder Eye Bolts" supplied in the hull hardware package when I purchased the kit and hardware from CLC.

Mark
mark48
 
Posts: 156
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 9:55 pm

Re: eyebolts embedded in epoxy

Postby slash2 on Sun Aug 22, 2021 3:49 pm

I’m curious about the idea that SS corrodes when embedded in epoxy ( or I guess any oxygen deprived location). I understand that oxygen is needed for the SS to create a passivated coating, but if there is no oxygen then it also can’t rust, right?

I do see, perhaps, at the epoxy water interface that corrosion may occur - maybe enough oxygen to rust but not passivate?
Steve Sawtelle
slash2
 
Posts: 153
Joined: Fri Jul 09, 2021 2:27 am

Re: eyebolts embedded in epoxy

Postby Wayne G on Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:11 pm

From the photos it looks like the eyebolt sheared and did not fail due to corrosion; would expect to see the diameter reduced at the failure point if it was corroded.
I assume that the bolt was originally flawed and was compromised as it was torqued in.

You should be able to drill out the bolt remnant by using a succession of increasingly larger drill bits. You may also be able to use a bolt extractor ( drill a center pilot hole and then use a tap that tightens anti-clockwise) but as the bolt is epoxied in place it may not easily release.

I would simply replace with another eyebolt of the same size epoxied in place as you did the original.

I’d also do as you suggest and sand, epoxy and paint the scuffed up parts of the rudder.

Probably a good idea to replace the lower eyebolt also.
Wayne Gray
Orlando Florida
Wayne G
 
Posts: 88
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2016 11:19 am

Previous

Return to PocketShip Forum

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 28 guests

cron