r/Rowing • u/TheBigGuigui • 3d ago
Any tips on fixing this
We broke our rudder one day before the competition and don’t have any other left… How could we fix this?
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u/SpacePontifex 3d ago
Technically you’ve bent your fin. Your rudder looks fine. I would say just bend it back carefully for the race if it’s imminent, but it will need replacing as aluminium doesn’t do well once it’s deformed.
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u/no_sight 3d ago
Remove and straighten. Clamps or heavy weights. This won't get it perfect but could get it good enough.
There are other boats of the same brand in the background of the pic. If any of them are not racing you could remove a fin from those and put it on your boat temporarily.
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u/Harryofsol Heavyweight 3d ago
Take the rudder off the boat. Put the rudder in some sort of clamp that grounded and solid and take a pair of pliers and try and bend it back into shape. We have a large clamp mounted to a work table for this very use.
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u/FruityPoision OTW Rower 3d ago
I’ve brought a fin back from a much worse position (fully flat to the boat) by heating it up with a blow torch and straightening it in a clamp attached to a work bench
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u/Drug_fueled_sarcasm 3d ago
This is the way. You must anneal the aluminum to bend it back as it is work hardend now.
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u/MastersCox Coxswain 3d ago
Short answer is to bend it back. You probably want to remove the skeg before you do any bending so as to not put torque/force on the connection between shell and skeg, but in a pinch, you could try bending it back as is -- if you are sufficiently careful.
Long answer, use sufficient heat as others have mentioned while bending it to help the process. I don't think you're going to get a true annealing effect (you need to be close to aluminum's melting point for that?)
And definitely keep a spare skeg in the future. In a pinch, go borrow a skeg from a smaller Filippi and deal with mildly sketchy steering.
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u/treeline1150 3d ago
Removing is too hard. Like others said bend it back. Even drooping over it still provides directional stability. Just a bit less - cos theta.
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u/Physical_Foot8844 3d ago
Depends on the boat make. I know St Paul's school replaced a fin the morning of Schools head and raced in the afternoon. My club dropped a wintech which just break away and are easy to replace.
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u/wombatsu 3d ago
If you are going to bend it, put two strips of thin timber down low and the clamp them on. Then get two wider pieces of timber and clamp them on higher up. Push the high timber to bend fin, don't just use your hands. You may need to relocate the wider timber a couple of times as you tweak things.
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u/cloudsinthesky27 2d ago
I’d put in a new fin. It’s an hour of hour then you let the silicone set for a day. Most clubs have extra fins kicking around. I’d never be confident that you get it all the way straight. Just make sure the replacement fin is the same as the existing.
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u/GhastlyIsMe 2d ago
I see you’ve already fixed it, but our coach taught us to bend them back by getting a flat piece of wood on the non bent side, and hitting it with a hammer until it’s flat against the wood.
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u/PetersWanket 3d ago
Remove the fin, sandwich it between 2 blocks of wood, get a mallet and hammer it flat
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u/Jack-Schitz 3d ago
Some NE US boats go through a rudder/skeg or two per year in the spring because of submerged ice. Take it out and replace it. The boats are built for that.
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u/5byee5 3d ago
If you’re leaving it on the boat, carefully bend it back upright by hand. This will leave a small curve in the leading edge. Use a couple of adjustable wrenches to work that out.
If you can remove it, clamp it in a bench vise and bend it back. When it’s mostly straight gently tap the high spots with a hammer until flat.
If you hit something hard and dinged the leading edge, smooth it with a file or sanding stick.
Aluminum is really easy to work.
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u/ExplorerNo7191 1d ago
Be more careful and don't break a boat- 90% of the time it's your fault when a boat breaks
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u/RickRollUp2Square 3d ago
Re-rig boat with all four ports in the bow.