O'Day 222 lousy rudder

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George68fs

.
Oct 22, 2012
14
Oday 222 Heritage Lake, Putnam Co., IN
Hello All,
Bought a 6hp Nissan, installed a compression post, and finally splashed my
'84 222 this past Wednesday. Of course it has now been raining, off and on, for the past three days. The only thing I was able to do was take the boat out for a quick quarter lap around the lake to test out the Nissan.

I am really impressed with the sturdiness of the boat, until I checked out the structure of the rudder. Wow, what a let down. I pulled the blade back up and just used the O.B. to go back to the slip.

The blade looks original, and the top half looks fairly new. Is there any way I can reinforce the top half without adding too much weight?

Thanks for all your help in the past, George
 
M

Mich222

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Oct 20, 2008
142
Oday 222 USA
George68fs said:
Hello All,
Bought a 6hp Nissan, installed a compression post, and finally splashed my
'84 222 this past Wednesday. Of course it has now been raining, off and on, for the past three days. The only thing I was able to do was take the boat out for a quick quarter lap around the lake to test out the Nissan.

I am really impressed with the sturdiness of the boat, until I checked out the structure of the rudder. Wow, what a let down. I pulled the blade back up and just used the O.B. to go back to the slip.

The blade looks original, and the top half looks fairly new. Is there any way I can reinforce the top half without adding too much weight?

Thanks for all your help in the past, George
Click to expand
The previous owner ( I am the second owner) must have added the aluminum plate to the lower half of rudder head on my 1987 Oday 222. Other than the additional aluminum plate, my rudder and head assembly appear to be original. I am not at my boat , however would guess the added aluminum plate is about same thickness as existing rudder head aluminum- approximately 3/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Steering feels solid, with little slop.
 

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Joe11688

Joe11688

.
Jan 24, 2005
4,881
Oday 222 Dighton, Ma.
I remember talking to Rudy Nickerson at his shop about the rudder heads on some of the O'Day 222s being very thin. My rudder head is 1/4" Aluminum. I can tell that you have the original rudder blade by the seam where it was glued together. I'm wondering if Foss Foam Mfg also built the rudder heads as well as the blades. The rudders on these boats and even the larger O'Days were very inferior. It's a shame that O'Day couldn't have contracted with another rudder company. My original rudder blade broke shortly after my guarantee ran out and it cost me $160 for a new one at the factory. It wasn't too long after that, the other blade broke and O'Day had gone out of business by then.

The blade I have on my boat now was built by Jeff who was Rudy's business partner back then and it still as good as the day I bought it.

You could probably reinforce it like the one in the picture posted by Mich, or you could make a new rudder head out of 1/4" Aluminum or Stainless Steel. If you choose to do the latter, I would extend the rudder head about 1.5" higher than the transom so that you could go with a thicker tiller than the one that came with the boat. You may be able to accomplish the same result by dropping the pintails down to the next hole and boring two more holes for the pintails like I did to mine. Check out this link to my photo album for pictures.
http://forums.oday.sailboatowners.com/album.php?albumid=372&page=3
 
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