83 Oday 34' has the Edson full aluminum disc steering quadrant with no visible Rudder stock showing. Can the fiberglass be cut that is above the quadrant or are there bearings or bushing in the way?
Need info on below deck Auto pilot installation
- Thread starter Stargazer79
- Start date
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 21,684
Welcome back to the forum @Stargazer79, it's been awhile.
Your 1984 Oday 34 was the last year they were built. With only 241 built, it is a rare breed.
What your looking at would help. Generally there are bushings at the bottom and the top of the rudder shaft log (the fiber glass). The bearings fix the rudder shaft in the middle of the log. They are critical to your rudder function.
The typical hydraulic and and linear drive AP units are not recommended to be attached to the steering quadrant. That said there are boats out there that owners have attached their AP to the quadrant. Some have been successful, others have found the thrust of the drives have broken the quadrant.
Your boat is 11,500 lbs displacement. The available wheel pilots and tiller pilots are designed to safely steer boats.
EV-100 Tiller Pilot Key Features
Your 1984 Oday 34 was the last year they were built. With only 241 built, it is a rare breed.
What your looking at would help. Generally there are bushings at the bottom and the top of the rudder shaft log (the fiber glass). The bearings fix the rudder shaft in the middle of the log. They are critical to your rudder function.
The typical hydraulic and and linear drive AP units are not recommended to be attached to the steering quadrant. That said there are boats out there that owners have attached their AP to the quadrant. Some have been successful, others have found the thrust of the drives have broken the quadrant.
Your boat is 11,500 lbs displacement. The available wheel pilots and tiller pilots are designed to safely steer boats.
EV-100 Tiller Pilot Key Features
- Rated for tiller-steered sailboats up to 13,200 lbs (6000kg) displacement
- Rated for wheel-steered sailboats up to 16,500 lbs (7,500kg) displacement
- Their website claims the AP is designed to work on O'Day 34 boats
Thank you jssailem, I had contacted Edson on their recommendation for Quadrant attachment and they confirmed my guess, that it is not recommended. And you confirmed it as well. If you have a second, Do you know the sizes of the bushings/bearings, because I would hate to cut into one while attempting to free up the bare rudder shaft, enough for an arm to be mounted?
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 21,684
No I do not.
I would suspect (based on work with some Hunter owners), that you could make some educated guesses. They would be fitted inside the Rudder shaft log. You could measure the ID of the log, and the OD of the rudder shaft using a digital calipers and be within 0.01mm
This could give you the size of the bearing. You would then need the depth. Guessing about 1" maybe less. The material I would look at would be HDPE.
McMaster-Carr might have a product McMaster-Carr .
I would suspect (based on work with some Hunter owners), that you could make some educated guesses. They would be fitted inside the Rudder shaft log. You could measure the ID of the log, and the OD of the rudder shaft using a digital calipers and be within 0.01mm
This could give you the size of the bearing. You would then need the depth. Guessing about 1" maybe less. The material I would look at would be HDPE.
McMaster-Carr might have a product McMaster-Carr .
If you remove the emergency tiller cover, you might be able to see the top bushing.
I don't know if Rudy is still at D&R Marine but if you could get ahold of him he might know.
518-644-3001
Here is what the rudder tube looks like on my O’Day 322. Not sure how similar it is to the O34…
I added a rudder sensor that is attached to the steering quadrant (no significant force ).
I do have some room above the quadrant to attach a tiller arm if I ever want to go with a below-deck AP.
Greg
I added a rudder sensor that is attached to the steering quadrant (no significant force ).
I do have some room above the quadrant to attach a tiller arm if I ever want to go with a below-deck AP.
Greg
Very similar, it looks like the auto pilot arm is going to need about 2 to 3 inches of visible shaft, and I want to cut the fiberglass sheath away right above my quadrant. Just want to know if there is anything behind the fiberglass until I get to the shaft.
I guess you can’t see any section of bare shaft, to see if the tube tight on the shaft? I can see mine is tight, and no room for anything but the glass tube…
Greg
Just got off the phone with Rudy, whose number is 508 644-3001 not 518, and he said that the fiberglass shaft log is solid fiberglass until you get to the shaft and that it should be greased every year or so with waterproof grease.
Is there anyone our there who has put a below deck Auto pilot rudder arm assembly on the shaft of a 34 O'day? Rudy of D&R Marine said that the fiberglass shaft log is solid fiberglass until you get to the shaft and that it should be greased every year or so with waterproof grease. Also to shout out to fellow owners to see if someone has done what I need to do.
Hey @Stargazer79, I have owned a 1985 35' O'Day for over 20 years. I spend much more time working on it than I do sailing on it. Anyway I just saw your post and maybe by now you have resolved your issue.
Like yours, my rudder shaft is completely encased in a glass tube except for about half way up where the Edson steering quadrant is bolted. Since "they" don't recommend bolting the actuator on the quadrant directly, I recently decided to bolt on a 5/8" aluminum plate directly to the quadrant via 4 bolts: 2 of the bolts that hold the rudder stop peg and then 2 more further over and towards the center (drilled quadrant for these 2). Of course the reason was to spread the load on the quadrant as it is just relatively thin cast aluminum. It works but it hasn't been thoroughly tested under real loads - just forced resistance at the wheel.
The actuator is ONLY connected to the plate (actuator bolt does NOT go through the quadrant). BTW, I wasn't going to cut open the glass tube since I figured they manufactured it that way for a reason.
A little background: I installed a Raymarine Autopilot consisting of the EV-1 heading sensor, ACU-100 controller, the p70s display and the ST-4000 wheel pilot (was enticed by good package price, rebate and easy to install). BUT like many others I discovered that it cannot handle much weather helm. Plus the plastic is flimsy (many posts regarding this), to say the least (had to repair internal broken screw studs). The autopilot obviously needed to be beefed up.
Since the Raymarine electronics were already installed, I decided to purchase the Octopus drive (on sale for about $900) and and try to salvage the sensor, controller and display. However the ACU-100 only provides 7 amps to the drive. I could have spent a lot of money replacing the ACU-100 with an ACU-400. Instead, I built a relatively simple circuit that takes the ACU-100 signal and can provide over 20 amps. The Octopus requires19 amps at full load. Everything works, sort of... In a few weeks (after the holidays), I'll work on a control glitch I discovered during the first sea trial.
My suggestion to others in the "same boat"... If you don't want the SIGNIFICANT hassle (depending on your boat) of having to install a below deck autopilot, I'd suggest going with the CPT wheel pilot rather than Raymarine's wheel pilot. It has no networking but it does its job from what I understand and is more stout than the Raymarine wheel pilot.
Like yours, my rudder shaft is completely encased in a glass tube except for about half way up where the Edson steering quadrant is bolted. Since "they" don't recommend bolting the actuator on the quadrant directly, I recently decided to bolt on a 5/8" aluminum plate directly to the quadrant via 4 bolts: 2 of the bolts that hold the rudder stop peg and then 2 more further over and towards the center (drilled quadrant for these 2). Of course the reason was to spread the load on the quadrant as it is just relatively thin cast aluminum. It works but it hasn't been thoroughly tested under real loads - just forced resistance at the wheel.
The actuator is ONLY connected to the plate (actuator bolt does NOT go through the quadrant). BTW, I wasn't going to cut open the glass tube since I figured they manufactured it that way for a reason.
A little background: I installed a Raymarine Autopilot consisting of the EV-1 heading sensor, ACU-100 controller, the p70s display and the ST-4000 wheel pilot (was enticed by good package price, rebate and easy to install). BUT like many others I discovered that it cannot handle much weather helm. Plus the plastic is flimsy (many posts regarding this), to say the least (had to repair internal broken screw studs). The autopilot obviously needed to be beefed up.
Since the Raymarine electronics were already installed, I decided to purchase the Octopus drive (on sale for about $900) and and try to salvage the sensor, controller and display. However the ACU-100 only provides 7 amps to the drive. I could have spent a lot of money replacing the ACU-100 with an ACU-400. Instead, I built a relatively simple circuit that takes the ACU-100 signal and can provide over 20 amps. The Octopus requires19 amps at full load. Everything works, sort of... In a few weeks (after the holidays), I'll work on a control glitch I discovered during the first sea trial.
My suggestion to others in the "same boat"... If you don't want the SIGNIFICANT hassle (depending on your boat) of having to install a below deck autopilot, I'd suggest going with the CPT wheel pilot rather than Raymarine's wheel pilot. It has no networking but it does its job from what I understand and is more stout than the Raymarine wheel pilot.
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Ho un oday34 1981 in Italy , ho installato un raymarine con attuatore tipo1 e acu 200 da 5 anni, ho rinforzato l'attacco del settore edson, e con un sostegno in multistrato resinato nella parte poppiera, il tutto funzionante alla perfezione! Adesso non ho foto, se interessa vedo di fare il possibile anche se la barca è in Grecia. Ciao
I have an Oday 34 1981 in Italy, I have installed a Raymarine with actuator type 1 and acu 200 for 5 years, I have reinforced the attachment of the Edson sector, and with a resin plywood support in the aft part, all working perfectly! Now I don't have photos, if interested I'll try to do what I can even if the boat is in Greece. Ciao!