removing catalina 30 rudder

[Tom]

I am planning to haul my cat30 in the spring and remove the rudder to repair the bearing surface using West System manual instructions. My question is what clearance is needed between the stern and the ground to remove the rudder and shaft. My boat yard has a paved surface - I don't think they would appreciate me digging a hole to get the rudder and shaft off I'm sure many have removed Cat30 rudders - any help would be appreciated.PS West Manual / staff are great !

 

[Gary Kunkel]

Not much of a problem

We have a 1988 Catalina 30 that was in the boat yard last December. All they had to do to remove the rudder was put a few pieces of extra scrap material under the keel when the boat was blocked into the yard. Seems like it just took six inches or less of wooden blocks to sit the keel on before adding the prop stands, then the rudder could be removed and reinserted without difficulty. We had heard that you had to dig a hole, etc. but the yard just laughed, added a small amount of extra clearance using the blocks .... and there you go.Gary KunkelCatalina 30"Folie a Deux"

 

[Allen Schweitzer]

Clearance, Clarence!

Tom,Gary's right, but just to be clear, you're going to want to lift the bottom of your keel about 2.5' to 3' above the ground when it's finally put on the stands. And that's assuming you have a FIN keel (5'5" draft). If you have a wing keel or a shoal draft keel, obviously, this measurement will have to be adjusted.I took mine off a few years ago. The toughest thing was getting the bolts loose on the quadrant. After that, dropping the rudder was a snap.Good luck!!Allen Schweitzers/v FalstaffC-30 Hull# 632

 

[Tom]

Clearance Clarence?

Gary says 6" Allen says 2 to 3' ? where are you measuring the clearance from ? Usually when I haul out the boat there is about 1' between the ground and the bottom edge of the keel which is blocked. Is this enough clearance?

 

[Michael]

getting those bolts on the quadrant undone

isnt that hard if you plan ahead. there was pretty bad corrosion between the stainless steel and the aluminum on mine when i removed the quadrant, but i let wd-40 soak overnight before i attempted to loosen with a "breaker bar." also, you will need more like 2-3' of clearance, not 6'' Good luck.

 

[Gary Kunkel]

Clearance - revisited

Hello again.When our boat was in the yard, it was raised about six inches higher than it otherwise would have been if the keel had been sitting on the ground. In other words, only a total of 6 inches or so of additional height were added by placing the keel on some wooden boards. Of course the bottom of the rudder itself was well above the ground at that point. That allowed the yard workers to remove/replace our rudder without any problem. I was surprised that the small amout of additional height gained by putting some blocks under the keel would be adequate, but seeing is believing and I saw them do it. Hope your removal goes as smoothly as ours did.p.s. Ours is a fin keel.Regards,Gary

 

[Gary]

Picture of clearance

I was beginning to feel a little "sensitive" about this whole clearance issue. Two different posters have said one would need two to three feet of additional height to remove a rudder, not the 6 inches or so that I described. Beginning to doubt myself, I looked back through my yard pictures .... and here 'tis. This picture shows the blocks under my boat's keel. You'll notice there is no rudder on the boat. It was removed and replaced with the boat blocked just as it is in this picture. The bottom of the keel is certainly nowhere near 2.5 to 3 feet above ground level. Your mileage may vary.Regards,Gary

 

[Tom]

thanks Gary

a picture is worth a thousand words. thanks for your advice and photo Gary