Seal 28 Sealargo. Just returned from 12 weeks in Brittany canals,great.But still have a problem with a heavy helm, so much so that the Autohelm 2000+ would not cope whilst motoring across the channel, 14 hours on the helm is a long time.The boat has a new Bukh 24 fitted, any ideas. The boat is now in France so i have all winter to ponder[?]

Hello Colin
Did you have the rudder blade up or down, my helm is heavy when the blade is up and I am motoring fast, it is better with the blade down.
Is the autopilot not coping because of the "strain" or is it because the boat is wandering too much, and the autopilot is not responding quick enough.

Mike Edwards
Seal 28 "Aztec"

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Do both boats have the same rudder design? It is usually fairly easy to balance a rudder by making sure that some of the blade is forward of the vertical axis. I notice in the pictures that the 28 rudder angles back so that will tend make it heavy to start with. If you can’t angle it forward then material would need to be added to the front of the rudder forward of the vertical axis. This will remove the heaviness you feel as it will be more “balanced”. My rudder is a dinghy style setup and extremely heavy when up but very light when down.

John Williams
275/60 CRYSTAL

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You need to set up your Autohelm 2000 as it describes in the handbook, but I don't think any of these simple pilots will steer reliably when it gets a bit lumpy, they just can't respond quickly enough, especially in a following sea. The Seal 28's are a bit of a pain to steer at first, there is a post from myself saying much the same as you somewhere in the archives which I sent in after my first season on Andiamo. As Mike says, keeping the drop blade down while motoring helps. You also need to pay attention to the steering and not let the boat wander off course. I find sitting on the cockpit coaming and steering with a tiller extension gives you a better view forward and makes you concentrate on keeping the course. It's quite comfortable too, until a wave slaps the side and squirts up under the weather cloths!



Neil Sinclair
Seal 28/27
'Andiamo of Exe'

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Hello Colin,

We have had what sounds like exactly the same problem. We found that it was caused by the bush at the bottom of the rudder post. Ours was made of nylon which has the unfortunate property of expanding with time when immersed in water. We have now replaced it with one made of delrin which does not expand. The helm is still heavier than say a Parker 275 where the rudder is transom mounted but it is no longer the two handed trial of strength which it used to be. The diagnostic tests for the `disease' are a) is it still very stiff when stationary in the water and b) does it free up completely when the boat is out of the water on blocks? If the answer to both these questions is `yes' it means that the saturated expanded nylon is still impeding the rudder post even with no force from moving water but that it dries out and contracts when on land and thus frees up movement completely.

Unfortunately we experienced the same problem with nylon sliders on the keel which meant that we could not completely retract the blade.... but that's another story!

I took some pictures of the bush replacement process for the rudder fix. If you send me your email address (email address removed) I will send them to you (can't seem to master the image insertion process on the forum).

Tod Russell
Seal 28 Minimosh (66)

Hello Todd
I would be interested in seeing your photo's although I do not consider I have a problem of this nature at the moment.

Can I suggest you edit out your email from the forum post you have just made. Web crawlers will pick up on your email and you may start to receive spam.
To email anyone who has posted a message on the bulletin board all you need do is click on the persons name in the left column, and then click on "click to send email" link.

Mike Edwards
Seal 28 "Aztec"

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Thanks for the suggestion, Mike. It looks as though someone has already followd your suggestion and deleted my email address. Unfortunately the `send email' facility within the forum doesn't allow me to either copy in images or to send attachments. So I'll go back to figuring out how to post them on the site.

Thanks again.

Tod Russell
Seal 28 "Minimosh"

Hi Todd - yes, I removed the email address. Sorry, should have put a note in.

Have you seen the message http://www.parkerseal.org.uk/bbs/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=107  which (hopefully) will help with putting pictures on here.



Geoff

Parker 21 / 18 Dawn

hello Todd
if you have difficulty posting the photos on the Internet then email them to me and I will put them on.
My email address is in the members handbook on page 30 under "Aztec"

Mike Edwards
Seal 28 "Aztec"

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