Hylas 54 Specifications | Home (Back to home page of website www.Dakare.com)
Rudder
Over the years since the Hylas 54 has been built, there have been reported failures of the ship's rudder. The following is meant to put rumor and fact into perspective.
Off the drawing boards of Herman Freers, the Hylas 54 was designed to have a break away rudder in that the lower half of the rudder was specifically designed to break away in the event that the rudder hit an object. In theory this is great and one that I espouse. Better to have half a rudder than no rudder at all. However, reality persists in lieu of theory and the rudder, as originally designed had not worked well. Below is a report from our friend on Karina who had just participated in the Caribbean 1500:
The touchy feely part of the day was to see one of the Hylas's shorn off rudders. Just amazing how flimsy the internal construction was. There was one small plate of aluminum toward the trailing edge and no grid work that we could see. The remaining part of the rudder was filled with epoxy mixed with micro balloons (which didn't help it float any) and had about three layers of fiberglass over the whole thing. I am surprised that more of these have not failed. The rudder post stops at the lower bearing which is about 18 inches from the hull. There is sure a lot of torque on this type of assembly and it was small wonder that the failure occurred where it did. Karina
This report is worrisome to say the least. Enquiring with Queen Long, the manufacturer of the Hylas 54, the following was reported back:
Dec. 5, 2005 E-mail: kq4yk@winlink.org
Attn: Mr. Dan and Mrs. Karen Sehnal E-mail: SVDakare@yahoo.com
Dear Dan and Karen:
Re: Hylas 54 rudder issue
The sequence of hull number, your rudder should be installed with new designed rudder which it was built with Twaron with extended support bracket and reinforced the lamination on the rudder blade double on and used putty which it is one kind of micro cell ball mixed w/resin instead of foam.
Since you has been cruising long distance, your rudder should be ok, if it does not hit something while cruising. However, when you feel the rudder have the problem, please contact us immediately.
Best regards,
Queen Long Marine Co., Ltd.
Joseph Huang / President
JH/ct
Additional notes from our sister ship - Jerry on Láme Libra, based upon discussions with Queen Long:
I received info from Joseph and from Dick about rudders, etc.
RUDDER There have been six rudder failures; 4 with the original design, 1 with our design (additional internal structure and injected PU foam), and 1 with the current design (additional internal structure and internal Puddy, a closed cell mixed resin).
For the record, we inspect our rudder assembly in great detail at least once a year and casually inspect it at other times. At no point have we seen anything to make us suspicious of the integrity of the rudder, its fittings, internal structure or mounting. We have had no leaks around the rudder post. In fact, after reading the above note from Karina and specifically inspecting the rudder assembly for any problems whatsoever, we have come away thinking that it is pretty much inconceivable, unless we actually hit something with our rudder, that we could possibly lose the rudder. The construction technique is substantial as is the mounting of the rudder within the boat. I think the problems mentioned by Karina is due to the early fabrication method specified by the designer which later on was modified. Dakare is one of the vessels that have the newly designed, stronger, stainless steel frames and constructed out of Twaron, which is known for its strength and resiliency.
Mold for Rudder:
Skeg Appendage:
Dan holding rudder stainless steel frame.
This unit was so stout that it could barely be lifted by hand.
Final Assembly:
