Making the rudder blade

I decided to make up the rudder blade. This was a fun little project, and I think it's coming out great so far.

I started with rough-cut Honduras mahogany and white oak. Using my Home Depot-rented Makita table saw, I ripped the planks into roughly sized staves and laminated them together with thickened epoxy to form the rudder blank.

Oak and mahogany staves

Staves glued up into a blank 

I made a cardboard template from the plan specifications and used that to trace the shape onto the blank. Using my little band saw, I trimmed the blank.

Rudder blank is shaped and planed. Very pleasing work using a nice hand plane.

Then using the drill press, I bored the holes for the pivot pin and the rudder up-uphaul and down-haul hardware. Gotta make sure they're perpendicular to the plane of the blade!

Holes drilled for pivot pin, and up- and down-hauls

Then I used my router with a round-over bitt to shape the leading and bottom edge of the blade. 

Rounded edges. 

Here's the 3/4 finished rudder. I still need to taper the trailing edge, sand and apply several layers of epoxy to waterproof and harden it.

Shaped, planed, drilled and rounded rudder blade

After that, it's on to the rudder cheeks.