Association Forum - Rudder modifications

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

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.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

Catalina 25 Specific Forum

Rudder modifications

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

frich
Captain

Member Avatar

USA
418 Posts

Initially Posted - 10/19/2004 : 15:25:37

Hi all

My buddy sails a 235 Beneteau, here on Long Islands South shore (where the water can get low in spots)

His rudder mounting has a safeguard that will actaully lift the rudder off the gudgeon should he run aground.

Seems like this is a nice feature, has anyone come up with something similar for our C25's?

Thanks
Frank R

84 C25 SK

Edited by - on

dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 10/19/2004 : 16:03:38

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by frich
 His rudder mounting has a safeguard that will actually lift the rudder off the gudgeon should he run aground.

Seems like this is a nice feature, has anyone come up with something similar for our C25's?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

One time, while motoring through the rather shallow channel leading into my marina in my previous boat, a boat approached from the other way kicking up a bit of a wake. My stern lifted as the wave slid underneath the boat and when the stern came down in the wave's trough, the rudder bottomed out. It hit with enough downforce to extricate the lower pintle from it's gudgeon. With the lower pintle free and the rudder now pivoting on the upper pintle, my rather bouyant rudder proceeded to float sideways into the spinning prop. I immediately shut the engine down, but now I was drifting rudderless and engineless within the narrow channel, but fortunately I had enough momentum to float past the rocks at the marina opening and alongside the dike wall, with it's protruding rusted bolts.

The only damage was a few prop bites to the rudder and some scrapes below the rub rail, but after that incident, I made sure that my pintles could never extricate themselves from the gugdeons again.

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 10/19/2004 : 17:43:11

My Spirit 23 had a rod rather than pintles. The rod was 8-10"s longer than the distance between pintles. It allowed a person to lift the rudder straight up that distance and put it a bit above the shoal keel. There was simply a cotter hole to hold it at the next height.

Edited by - on

Ben
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1234 Posts

Response Posted - 10/20/2004 : 15:13:38

When I bought Adventurous a couple years ago it had what was probably the original rudder with splitting all the way around the seam. After some discussion on this wonderful board I determined that it was probably fixable. However, I have an acute medical condition in which my fingers turn to thumbs when I'm trying to be a Mr. Fixit when I'm actually Mr. Clueless, I decided to buy the new balanced rudder.

Long story short, I still have my old rudder and have been contemplating experimenting with it to make it a kick-up rudder. Now that I have a wing keel, I am EXTREMELY careful about skinny water since the rudder has a deeper draft than the keel.

Anyone (with real skills) want to team up on this with me? Could be a new marketing venture we could sell to CD?

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 10/20/2004 : 15:25:10

A year ago there was a long thread on the 250 forum about their rudder woes. I took lots of pictures of the retractable heads of different model boats with similar transoms. The O'Days 25s, and 272s and S2 7.9 had rudder heads that looked like they would work. Hey why not just buy a Hunter rudder?

Edited by - on

rudderman
Deckhand

Members Avatar

2 Posts

Response Posted - 10/20/2004 : 22:06:33

Hi all.
I was browsing your forum after getting a request to build a rudder for a C25. I have built several for S2 7.9's (kick-up rudders).
So here are a few comments on the issue:
Kick - up rudders are a mixed blessing. When it is up steering is very difficult and the rudder will easily contact your prop.
If it kicks back a little- instant bigtime weather helm, kicked forward a little and you can have lee helm.
The pivot point (neck)is a weak spot and many 7.9's have had the factory rudder snap off at this point after years of flex.
The ones I build are all epoxy/biaxial glass with carbon fiber and stainless steel reinforcement. Not cheap to do!

Once a rudder splits around the middle it usually has serious water intrusion/delamination. Not too hard to fix with epoxy, glass, and a drill. A new rudder would be faster, stronger, and lighter of course.

If a few people wanted them I could make a mold and build some. Otherwise anyone with basic skills could build one of laminated wood-if done well this will be strong and last a long time if maintained.
If someone wants a wood rudder built I can refer you to someone.

Good luck
Frank

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 10/20/2004 : 22:33:51

The 7.9 at our club has had to reinforce his rudder blade but the rudder head looks serious!. Thanks for the info and offers. Did you find the dimensional drawings for the official Catalina class balanced rudder in our manuals section?

Edited by - on

Ben
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1234 Posts

Response Posted - 10/21/2004 : 11:20:49

I'm not so worried about the boat getting squirrely when/if the rudder kicks up. I just don't want to rip the lower (or upper) gudgeon (sp?) out of the boat. The way I see it, if the rudder DOES kick up, then I'm about to ground myself anyway.

Edited by - on

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

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.