Back in the fall, on a beautiful sailing day, we were in the middle of a tack when our novice helmsman asked "What do I do now?". When I turned around he was handing me the tiller - which was no longer attached to the rudder. It seems the pin that attaches the tiller to the rudder (I'll call it the pivot pin) had torn a chunk out of the top of the rudder. Looking closely it appears to be a manufacturing defect because there's a large void drilled out of the foam core that was then glassed over. Although at 18 years old, I'd say it lasted pretty well. We've spent the winter dealing with it the best we could and trying to figure out the right fix. Dealing with it the best we could includes dropping the tiller overboard one night as we were anchoring. So, we no longer have the metal cap that fits over the rudder either, as it was still firmly attached to the tiller. Anyway, the solution we've come up with is to trim off the portion of the rudder where the pivot pin ripped through (about a 2"X2" square on the top of the rudder), reglass it, and drill a new hole. This effectively moves the pivot point about 2" forward of the original position. I don't see any reason this would have any noticable effect on the handling. So, 2 questions: 1) Does anyone see a problem with our solution? 2) Does anyone know where we can find that metal cap that screws into the tiller and fits over the top of the rudder? Also, more out of curiosity since I think we're on our way to having this solved, if I needed to buy a rudder/tiller assembly for an '86 25.5, where would I look? Thanks for your suggestions, J.T.
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similar problems
Hey J.T. We had an incident similar to the one that you experienced and ended up losing our rudder. We were beating hard to weather one night and our rudder snapped off at the waterline. As we found out later, the rudder for the 25.5 had a weak spots in the design and would require a redesigned replacement. You may be experiencing a drawback from the design. I had a marine fabricator develop one for us out of marine plywood, fiberglass, and epoxy... much stronger (and heavier) than the original. It was well worth the $$ as we have been cruising now for several years without any problems. Just be sure that you reinforce the gudgeons should you decide to go that route.
Hey J.T. We had an incident similar to the one that you experienced and ended up losing our rudder. We were beating hard to weather one night and our rudder snapped off at the waterline. As we found out later, the rudder for the 25.5 had a weak spots in the design and would require a redesigned replacement. You may be experiencing a drawback from the design. I had a marine fabricator develop one for us out of marine plywood, fiberglass, and epoxy... much stronger (and heavier) than the original. It was well worth the $$ as we have been cruising now for several years without any problems. Just be sure that you reinforce the gudgeons should you decide to go that route.
You can copy mine . . .
Hey J.T., One possiblility, have a local shop fabricate you a need piece, I'm in the same area as you (Lake Travis) and would happy to let you use mine as a template. You might also search the archives, seems as if I have seen a few postings about sailboat salvage yards.
Hey J.T., One possiblility, have a local shop fabricate you a need piece, I'm in the same area as you (Lake Travis) and would happy to let you use mine as a template. You might also search the archives, seems as if I have seen a few postings about sailboat salvage yards.
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