As my rudder was banging a bit in a seaway last summer I decided to take it all off and check it out over the winter. Good news is the banging was just a minor degree of looseness from the pintles in their gudgeons. Dosen't seem bad enough to need any action yet. More worrying was the bottom edge of the aluminium box inside the rudder stock that the top of the rudder blade comes up against when fully down. The blade had been bashing into it when thumped home and had bent the aluminium forward till it came away from the sides. I have had it dismantled, rewelded and remantled (!) for the princely sum of forty quid by Retreat Boatyard. I am taking the opportunity to clean up the whole thing and varnish the tiller and maybe treat myself to a new up and downhaul line and fittings. I did wonder if anyone else had had trouble with this spot and suggest maybe you lift the rudder blade fully and peer up into the stock to check the weld is ok. I would be interested to hear from anyone else who had this problem. I am not really a thug despite my tales of broken boom, damaged rudder and mast and dropped keel! I'm just learning the hard way. Kate

Kate

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Hi Kate

I've looked at mine which is a bit bent but the weld doesn't seem too bad. I make a point now of not slamming the rudder down too fast.

I know Ken fitted a piece of thick nylon or something like that in the gap in front of the weld to act as a shock absorber - a good idea which I might try to copy.

Cheers

Tim

Hello Kate, I too had exactly the same problem and I also claim that I am not a thug [:)]. I simply levered the bent aluminium back to where it came from and then gave put my secret weapon in the gap to stop it collapsing again. My secret weapon is of course... an MFI plastic joining block cut to size and glued in. These are those brown or white things with a few holes in for joining shelves etc. These are relics from a bygone era...

Ken Surplice
Vice Commodore

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