Passage 450 Rudder

[Charliepapa]

I have a 1997 Passage 450 with relatively low hours - 900 on it.
There is some play in the rudder post. The original mfgr would be out of business as per Hunter.
The lower and upper parts are stainless slipped in a kind of delrin sleeve.
To remove the whole tunnel is probably a major work and I'm not sure we want to go this way. Was thinking of adding a stainless sleeve over the shaft to make it thicker and compensate the wear of the Delrin tube. Might be a good idea or a bad one. Would appreciate your comments if you ever experienced the same problem
Rgds Charlie Papa

 

[natotm]

1999 450 here and noted some rudder shaft play at original survey. I called Hunter Marine (bless their hearts) and they noted that the specs for the rudder shaft play at the hull are 3/16". While difficult to really measure it certainly seemed that the play was substantially less than that so I just monitored it subsequently with frequent dive inspection and 1 year later a haulout. At the haulout the play had not changed noticeably since the survey. Mine is slightly different with carbon fiber post. Have since moved to Caribbean and still check the rudder but no perceptible change yet (2.5 years now).