Bouyant rudder

[QP Chuck]

Now that my water tank is no longer leaking, I have another need for some help. A year ago last January we were on our way south from the Puerto Vallarta area in our H37C and about five miles out of Bahia Chamela (Mexico west coast) when our rudder broke off. I won't bore you with the dramatics; suffice to say a large sport fisher took us in tow and saved us from a sure loss of the boat. We managed to contact the company that made the original rudder (they still have the mold) and arranged for a new one to be built and shipped to us. With the help of some local oyster divers we managed to install the new rudder while at anchor in Bahia Chamela. Five weeks to the day after the old rudder left we were under way again.

Here's the problem: the new rudder is so bouyant that it pushes up so high into the shaft log that the rudder can turn through only part of its normal travel. Of course this cuts into manuverability quite a bit.

I devised a temporary fix by installing a hose clamp on the rudder shaft just below the upper shelf in the stern locker. This works, but over time the hose clamp will cut into the underside of the shelf.

Am I missing something about the installation? So far as I can see there is no obvious way to hold down the steering quadrant, and that little collar bolted onto the top of the shaft is to prevent the rudder from falling out.

Ideas?

 

[Jim Legere]

New Rudder

I too purchased a new rudder from the manufacturer (Foss Foam) back in 2001. I never had the problem you describe, but I can see how it could happen. Two ideas come to mind. The simplest would be to add weight to the rudder - perhaps by dropping some lead tire wights (or similar) down the hollow shaft of the rudder. But maybe its not possible to add enough weight this way. The other is to relocate the upper rudder bearing - the one that is composed of a collar and a big white plastic block - to the UNDERSIDE of the plywood 'shelf' in the lazarette. This will involve dropping the rudder part way and drilling a new hole in the shaft. Strange - rudders are supposed to be about neutral bouyancy...guess they goofed on this one.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Sorry to hear that, both of your problem and the original loss. I hope that you will find time to tell the story of how it was lost or broken. We H37C owners have a need to know.

You are on the right track with the hose clamp. And Jim's idea would work but it is risky and you would then need something on top. It may waterlog in time and want to go the other way. . . down!

What could you put under the clamp that would rub against the shelf instead of the clamp itself? Because you are right, that metal clamp is going to wear a groove and might even jam eventually. I am thinking a strip of rubber, maybe from a radiator hose or bicycle tire. Or maybe cut the top 1/2 inch off the stuffing box hose and slide that up there. It just needs to be a little wider than the clamp band.

You could have a collar made in two pieces to be bolted around the post. Ideally you would glue/epoxy a bearing surface under there, something similar to what is on top. You could shape two halves from a cutting board or starboard.

When I had my rudder straightened and completely rebuilt recently I got a real education about Foss rudders. Turns out that a large number of them have voids because of the way they are built. They start out floating but the voids eventually fill with water and then delamination begins. So eventually you want to do two things: barrier-coat the rudder so that it is truly waterproof and pay attention to where the post enters. That connection between the glass and post will let water in and needs to sealed from time to time.

 

[qldman36]

Several years ago i too broke the rudder shaft on my 27. I installed new shaft and reinstalled. My rudder floated BIG TIME even with water intrusion. Had to drape all the chain i had and sit on it to get it down low enough to slide in place There was a bearing on the exterior of hull that spaced the rudder far enough down to clear the hull. The wide plastic bushing[?] is there to keep rudder from dropping out when hauled.

 

[songeur@woosh.co.nz]

Rudder Problems

Yes maybe the best way is a UHM collar (Chopping Board style plastic) however you're better to get a section of good quality UHMWPE (Ultra High Molecular Weight Plastic ??), then for the top (shelf) laminate some fibreglass onto the ply the make up a paste with Graphite powder (west system epoxy mixed with graphite) and sand smooth, this will provide a great bearing surface for the UHM to move on.

Most of the new foam rudders have positive bouyancy due to the use of closed cell foam, the joint to the stock is always a probelm and eventually leaks that's why they use closed cell foam.

 

[Johnb]

Would be grateful for more information

Chuck,

Please, if you can, let us know where the rudder failed and how.

Thanks,

John Brecher

 

[QP Chuck]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I think I will go with Ed's idea since I happen to have a piece of 2" exhaust hose on board and a piece of cutting board left over from my water tank project! The more sophisticated ideas are certainly valuable, but since I am in far southern Mexico I don't have access to any of that stuff.

As to how the loss occurred: we were on our way to a nice anchorage about 90 miles south of Puerto Vallarta. Weather was not real nice; 20 to 30+ knots from behind us, 6 to 8 foot seas. We had to hand steer since our autopilot could not handle the large following seas. We were about 5 miles from our destination (I was on the wheel) when I heard and felt a heavy thump. I yelled down into the house to my wife and asked if something had fallen. No, but she had heard it too and thought it was the boom banging around.

After some short period of time, maybe two minutes, maybe ten, I lost all steering. The boat rounded up as it was designed to do. I looked back over my shoulder and saw the rudder floating away!

We had seen dozens of sea turtles that day, so we speculated we might have hit one of them. When a boat gets close to them they tend to dive. Regardless, when we were safely at anchor a neighbor went under the boat and found that the rudder shaft had broken right at the bottom of the hull. When I pulled the remaining shaft I saw there had been a small crack, evidently for some time, because there was a line of rust about 1/4 of the way around.

I suspect that at some time the rudder had bumped something and cracked the shaft, then the rust further weakened it, but I'm not sure. I did get some advice from a fellow who had a doctorate in metallurgy that one should never paint stainless steel. There was bottom paint on the rudder shaft where it broke.

Incidentally, the new rudder from Foss Foam has a stainless tube that has about 1 1/2 times thicker wall.

Moral? If you ever bump something with your rudder you should pull it and carefully inspect the shaft.

Thanks again, guys. Chuck