Hello stan, I have a 1982 ,C 27 #5110. My rudder shaft is 33". I estimated the length by measuring from the top of the post to the stuffing box. In my boat, the stuffing box is at the bottom of the aft lazarete. Then I estimated the length from under the lazarette to the bottom of the hull. I was off about 4 inches. The weight is unknown, but I estimated it to be about 100lbs. I asked three others to help. After rigging a harness around and under the rudder leaving two ends of the harness free, coming from the bottom of the rudder, I tied each of these lines to the becket of each block. I dropped a line down from each aft cleat and ran them through the pulleys. Each man now has a two to one advantage of the weight of the rudder. They were able to control the rudder up and down easily. The third man was available to control the rudder as the post became free. He basically only had to stabalize the rudder. I was in the boat removing the tiller head and the pin that holds the rudder in. I hope this is clear. E-mail me if you have any questions or a sketch. rferina@netscape.net Let me (us at the forum) how you make out.