It's a fun woodworking/shop project to make a new rudder blade, and if it's not for racing, it may only matter to yourself how good a reproduction it is. ?But I tried to do this at one point and could not source the size of good wood I wanted at any lumberyard I tried, and the home centers were worse. I almost decided I'd have to first laminate ?some boards to build up a blank... ?You could go with something made of cheap, glassed, shaped pine or oak and throw it away at the end of the season, just so you get on the water sooner to have fun... to me, that's the primary goal. ?And I almost did that.
In the end, I bought a cracked but original rudder for cheap off eBay, and carefully repaired it with internal threaded rods, epoxy and glass, and I trust it. You might have a go at restoring the existing rudder by taking it all apart, sanding it clean, adding some dovetailed jointed plugs or dowels across the break, and epoxying and glassing it back together. I mean, the stakes are low; you can experiment and build a skill. ? New rudders and daggerboards are pretty expensive, relative to the overall cost of an older boat. ?If you plan to race it or sell it, you want OEM, race-legal parts. ? For kicking around the borrow pit or local water hole, it may not be as big a deal. Don't let this stop you from hitting the water!
