IDA rudder paint?

[Gerry]

Advice please.  I purchased and used an IDA rudder on my CP16 this summer.  Big difference; loved it.  My boat stays in the waters of Door County, WI all summer.  The "green growth" on the rudder is more than abundant.  I scrub it once a week.  Can I use bottom paint on the rudder to deter the growth?

Gerry

[Salty19]

Paint will not stick to the HDPE plastic. Try using mildew cleaner and a magic eraser to clean it. It will take longer for the green stuff to accululate but won't prevent it altogether.

[marc]

I paint mine with Pettit hydrocoat.. Shouldn't matter what kind of paint you use though. Since  this paint has a fair amount of copper in it, I'm careful to not get any  paint on the aluminum shank of the rudder to avoid any galvanic corrosion. Before you apply paint, rough up the blade a bit with 80 grit sandpaper.

[marc]

Salty,
I had discussed this with the folks at Ruddercraft. They said just rough up the surface with sandpaper and paint. I've had mine painted for 2 years and it has held up well.

[Salty19]

No kidding?!?  I stand corrected!

[Craig]

Yup, it's true. Painted Ida rudder on Suncat. Works well. Same on Horizon Cat!

[MHardy]

This instruction sheet from RudderCraft has the painting instructions near the end.

http://www.ruddercraft.com/worksheets/instructions.pdf

[HeaveToo]

Why would you paint your rudder and not kick it up?  I leave mine in the up position in the slip.  I do have a bit of a stain on it from the water splashing up on the bottom corner when it is kicked up.

Then again, I bet the sun is hard on the plastic so maybe it will give it a barrier from the sun if you bottom paint it. 

[MHardy]

When the rudder is in the "up" position on my 16, about half of it is still in the water.

[Craig Weis]

Painting
High Density Polyethylene is naturally nonadhesive
to most products. In order to
apply anti-fouling paint you should:
1) Clean the surface (brand new rudders
are shipped clean)
2) Prepare by surface sanding the area to
be painted with 220-grit sandpaper
3) Apply anti-fouling paint. IdaSailor Marine
recommends VC-17 or Micron-17, applied
according to manufacturer?s instructions.

skip.

[BruceW]

If you pull the rudder up, tie if off, and put the tiller to the side, it should keep the rudder out of the water. That's what I do, anyway, with the Ruddercraft rudder on my CP 23. To make sure to hold the rudder up, I did put a horn cleat atop my tiller. Easy solution.

[deisher6]

Hey C-16 sailors:
After trying at least 4 different boom crutches on our C-16, I bought the whole Ida rudder assembly when I bought the rudder.

It provided great steering, excellent kick up and lowering ability, and a super bullet proof boom crutch for traveling.  I was not going to buy the tiller but a price break pushed me over the edge. 

Note in the picture that when the rudder is in the up position it would not be in the water. Another reason to buy the whole assembly.





You can just catch the ida rudder boom crutch that mounts to the rudder head in this flick.



regards charlie

[BruceW]

Agreed, Charlie, that would also be better. I decided not to afford the whole thing. Mine works okay as is, with the new cleat. When I used the cleat that came with the boat, it would let the rudder slip, and that stuff that gets on it is bad. I got most of it off, but will like to have some warm water to stand in to get the rest done this summer.