Hey, I have an old Alcort Catfish 13' sail boat that I'd like to get fixed up. After a quick inspection, I noticed that one of the rudders is cracked. Is there anyplace I can find Alcort or generic replacements for the rudder?
The boat (and its parts) haven't been in production since 1969.
The rudder assembly is made up of 3 components, the Tiller, Rudder Head (cheeks), and Rudder Blade.
The Rudder Head would be the most difficult to repair since it's cast aluminum. A crack in that piece will need to be welded by a specialty welder. Check the phone book, maybe look under aircraft welding.
The Rudder Blade is something between 1/8" and 7/32" aluminum plate. It might be less expensive to have a metal shop cut out a new blade using the old one as a template than to have it welded.
The tiller is nothing more that aluminum tubuing blind riveted to the rudder head and joined to the cross bar by universals. The tubing you can find from a quality tubing supplier - again, phone book. The universals can come from a number of boat suppliers. Try RWO, Ronstan, or Racelite.
When ordering tubing, be sure to ask for "clear anodized", otherwise they might give you plain and that would always blacken your hands with use.
