Rudder blanks

I decided to use a lightweight ceder core for the rudders.  The challenge becomes working out a method of sandwiching the rudder shaft between the cedar stock so that it can then be shaped, sheathed and vacuum encapsulated with epoxy.

My plan is to create two planks from a total of 20 pieces of 3/4 x 4 in cedar.  After this photo was taken, I mixed up a batch of cabocil and epoxy then slathered each edge and face with the mixture then placed the entire laminated block into a vacuum bag to insure that both planks were bonded well.

Next step will be to take a little time with a chisel and mallet cutting out a hollow portion that will allow the rudder shaft to be positioned between the two blanks.  Then another session of epoxy goo and vac bagging the cedar blanks over the rudder post to form a block with the rudder shaft in the middle of it. Once done, the fun part becomes shaping of  that the streamlined profile with a power planer.......at least that's the plan.