Repair question

Have been taking in a bit of water recently and a quick inspection has revealed a loose rudder tube. I dabble in wooden kayak building so my first thoughts for a repair was to seal with some thickened epoxy. The tube cannot be removed fully but can be moved up and down about an inch allowing me to get a good coat of epoxy on the outside of thevtube top and bottom.
Can anybody forsee a problem with this proposed repair? Perhaps there is a better product availble for this type of repair.
P.s. The tube itself is not damaged.
Cheers

that sounds fine ,make sure its bone dry though! I imagine the tube will get blocked by your glue so either wipe it out when wet or have the right sized bit on hand and drill it out when the epoxy hardens

Bummer, Boof. The only thing that may make this not hold up well is that the surfaces are not prepared for the epoxy to adhere well. If you can somehow get sandpaper on the surfaces to be bonded, then somehow clean them with acetone, you could be much more sure of your work holding up. If you have an Epic ski, you could remove the plastic deck cup, that would allow perfect access to the innards and rudder tube. You would have to call Epic for a replacement deck cup and cap, but at least the repair would be solid. If the ski is not an Epic, you may want to think about buying one of those deck cup/caps from Epic, and installing it just aft of your rudder tube to allow access to the innards, as well. At the Epic headquarter in Charleston, they have a few skis that have been repaired in this way for various problems with access. They are all being used as demos, so the method does hold up. Another possibility would be to make a cool carbon fiber or fiberglass “patch” to put over a hole (a hole big enough that you could work through; finished patch would be oversized so as to epoxy to top of deck surface) that you would cut just aft of the rudder tube. Before cutting the appropriately sized hole, lay polyethylene sheeting over the deck in the position of the proposed hole, laminate the carbon or 'glass over this and then squeegee the resin out. After curing, peel off new laminate, trim, sand, and finish to liking. Cut hole in deck, complete rudder tube repair, then epoxy patch onto deck. Be sure to seal with epoxy any foam or core in the sandwich laminate of the deck hole that you just cut out. This patch could also be the perfect base for a get-home rudder horn bungee system. Hope this helps.
-Doug

Have done this repair on two skis , it is well worth the effort to gain access to the inside of the hull to facilitate a solid and watertight connection at this crucial juncture , also an opportunity to beef up the upper end of the tube. This is defintly a weak spot on many ski designs and very commanly the source of leaking into the hull (NEVER a good thing ie not seaworthy ! )

curious as to the make of the ski boof head ?

Sandy. its a Stellar. Not blaming the manufacturer in this case as it was my fault. Had it sitting on top of an air con unit and it fell/blew off. Most probably landing directly on the rudder. Has a nice big scuff mark as well where it it a house stump.
Will try for an easy fix first as suggested by Lats. That was my plan anyway. If that goes pair shaped I will think about the other options.
cheers

there is a product called g flex made by west system epoxy has very high bonding but not as brittle as normal epoxy will bond to a varity of products one of the larger kayak companies use a similar product (methacrylate) in their boats for the internal fittings, ribs and to hold the deck on.

Good one Jamo , the gflex would work well for boof heads plan "A" , however it may not be the best to use if planning to "laminate" (using FG/ kev/ carbon) as additional structure for the repair.Used it in one of my repairs and although it works on hind sight would have used reg. epoxy mix for the laminations.

hi sandy agree in full.
just stuck part of my deck back on with it.
i am currently in the process of finishing of some major mods to a v10 sport will be uploading pictures of the mods soon

Epoxy/woodflour repair done and so far so good