Hi David-
Curious - where'd you see those photos? At the time I had the boat for sale and built the site, I hadn't yet redone the rudder, so I don't think I posted them there. I probably uploaded the photos to another site at some point, but I can't remember where. I did the rudder project a couple of years ago.In any event, I did take a few photos of the job, and can send you them if you'll find them helpful.
My original mahogany rudder had lots of annoying dings, holes, scars, and even a bit of dry rot. While I don't think it's necessary to glass over a mahogany rudder that's in good shape (and I feel glassing actually can be detrimental), mine was really beat. If my rudder only had gaps between the boards (typical of a boat that's out of the water), I'd have left it alone. Those gaps go away when the boards swell up once the boat gets wet. But I knew I'd need a new rudder either way, and my choice was to buy a new one or try to salvage what I already had. So I gave it a shot and glassed it.
Specifically, the process I used was to pull the entire rudder assembly from the boat (by removing the bronze strap and shoe at the base of the rudder), and then detach the rudder blade from the post. Two long bolts and two big wood screws secure the mahogany boards to the post. Once the wood rudder blade was free from its post, I got to work on it. I filled and then sanded about 1/8" off each side of it. That reduction in thickness allowed me to build up several layers of thin glass fabric to replace the 1/8" and maintain the original rudder thickness. (I forgot the fabric weight I used, but it was pretty light). In sanding, I made sure to keep the rudder extremely fair, and hand sanded with a board.
To apply the glass to the mahogany rudder, I wet it with West 105/205 epoxy, and I vacuum bagged it. I used peel-ply material between the breather fabric and the bag. This technique allowed me to get a pretty flawless smooth glass application. You can search the web for the basics on the vacuum bagging process - that's how I learned. One site I just found is
here.
My vacuum bag was actually a modified skateboard fabrication bag made by a company called
Roarockit. These guys make longboard skateboard kits. I wrote them about my project, and asked them to make me a slightly larger bag for my rudder. They happily agreed. In fact they thought it was great that I adapted their product for a different purpose other than the original intent. They gave me a few pointers too. While their hand pump pulls a pretty good vacuum, I had access to an actual vacuum pump so I attached a hose coupling to the bag and used that instead. I bet their hand pump would work fine for this project, though.
Despite my lack of experience in vacuum bagging, I was surprised that it came out as well as it did. A few years later the rudder is still looking very good. Honestly, I was worried that if I messed up the glass job and moisture infiltrated the rudder, the mahogany would swell and crack the glass application. So far that hasn't been the case, thankfully.
I'm not a professional boat restorer and I'm not sure whether this would be the proper technique that a yard would employ. In fact I believe most professionals would tell you to leave a serviceable mahogany rudder alone. Mine was really shot. Anyway, that's how I did the job. I saved several hundred dollars and picked up a few new tricks along the way.