[C38] C38: Bent Rudder Post

[Steven Ribble]

Hi Mark, sorry to hear about your trouble, and yes...it always happens when
your wife is suddenly into it.

I laid aground on a falling tide a few years ago and slightly canted my
rudder post. In itself it might not have been too bad, but the boat
wouldn't [continue] to steer itself straight as it had previously. So I
hauled it and the advice I was given is that you don't want to re-bend
(straighten) the post due to 1) the weakening of a rather important
component of the boat's safety and 2) due to potential damage/loosening of
the box/ladder structure within the rudder. I ended up with a new rudder.

Issues we had were heavily related to the difficulty of removing the
stainless bolts which were corroded into the aluminum quadrant...not fun
and took too much time for them to work me into their [full] work load.
Ended up taking a couple months before I was back in the water.

The benefit to all of this is that the new rudder is water tight (not sure
about the previous one) and solid so I don't worry about it's integrity.
Best of luck!

Steve
Tittravate, #64


-- 
Steve Ribble
207/852-0971
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