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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

Catalina 250 Specific Forum

Balancing 2nd generation rudder

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Keith D.
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USA
233 Posts

Initially Posted - 02/20/2006 : 14:11:51

Well we had a rainy weekend here in southern California and I found myself working on the beaching rudder for the 250. Basically I used Arlyn’s instructions for balancing it with a few differences. I have access to a mill down the street but it is one of those things that most of us don’t have in out garage. Instead I used a more common tool to do the same job a plane old table saw. After dissembling the head I used Arlyn’s method for determining the amount of material to be taken off the frame. I was after about one inch of the rudder being in front of the pivot point. Having marked the frame I screwed the frame to a scrap piece of plywood so as the blade would cut the frame where it was marked and ran it through the saw. I used old cheep carbide tipped blade, which cut it like butter. In the below picture you might be able to see the marking on the plywood which would have been square.

Upon reassembling the head I was surprised to see how much the bottom of the rudder was taken forward. The below picture is the beaching rudder on top of a non-modified 2nd generation non-beaching rudder. Originally they were both identical as far as rake when the detent hole was lined up. The detent hole was worn-out to a point that it allowed the rudder to drift back more than I raked it forward. That would have allowed the bottom of the rudder to go back a foot from its current position. The PO told me it had a lot of weather helm and I could easily see why.

One other thing I changed from Arlyn’s setup is the hold down for the rudder. Where Arlyn used a bungee I used a solid piece of line with an auto-release rudder cleat which I got from APS. I have one of these cleats on the centerboard of 18’ Buccaneer and it works quiet well. Last time I was in Lake Pleasant in Arizona I managed to find a tree stump under water and it popped loose just as advertised. I used the same line to bring the rudder up to a beached position. Since the clamp handle is kept loose I put a nylock nut over the top of it to act as stop nut. It allows the clamp handle to stay loose but it can not come off.

Another item is, apparently Catalina used the same tiller for the beaching rudder and the standard rudder. This is despite the fact that the standard rudder is 1 ½” wide and the beaching rudder is 2” wide. What Catalina did was to shim the 1 ½” tiller out to 2” for the beaching rudder. What I did was to just go out and get a 2” wide tiller for the Beaching rudder. I will probably make a set of shims so I can interchange the two tillers if I need to. I kept the same bolt pattern from the 1 ½” on the 2” so I could do this. I didn’t know what kind of stock was used to hold the rudder on to the tiller so 2” X ¼” stainless looked good at the metal yard but when I got it home I could tell it was a way over kill. I might have been able to go down to even 1/8” but I could not get any input as to what Catalina used. I do know one thing is those brackets are the last thing which will fail on that rudder.

The tiller I picked out has the same rise and the Catalina tiller but is about 5” longer. I could probably knock this off the but end and still make it work but I have found there is no real need. I will loose only about 2 degrees of rudder travel with the longer tiller. It stops at the rear stanchion where the shorter tiller will go about 1 inch past it. Once you are pegged over that far I don’t think it will make any difference. The good points of the longer tiller are it will seat me forward a little more and it will give me a longer lever arm to work with. I also set the height so it is a little taller. The original tiller measured 23” off the floor were I set the new tiller at 25” off the floor. This allowed the tiller to pass over my knee and leg with out having to raise it up. I can easily adjust it down if I find I don’t like it at that height.

Now I can go out and test both the balanced 2nd generation beaching rudder and the 2nd generation non-beaching rudder. If I really like it then the next step is to balance the non-beaching rudder. I don’t know if anyone has done that yet but it is a logical next step if it helps the handling of the boat. Originally they were both set up exactly the same, non-balanced. Has anyone out there balanced their 2nd generation rudder?

Keith
Southern California
250wb Hull #8

Edited by - on

Arlyn Stewart
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2980 Posts

Response Posted - 02/21/2006 : 07:39:10

Keith, good job and write up. Looking foward to hearing your sailing performance comparisons.

As everyone who has hung around here over the years knows, following the mods you just made, I think the 2nd generation beaching is the best rudder available for the 250 w/b.

Edited by - Arlyn Stewart on 02/21/2006 07:40:18

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Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.