Redrilling your Rudders.. The easy way.

So I am a nut about my rudder system. This is one of my tricks I was tinkering around with fine tuning tonight and thought I should share.

Don't fill the old hole with epoxy. What you are looking at is some Aluminum stock fit in an oversize hole, nothing to it. It wears better/works smoother than running the bolt through fiberglass. If you wanted to get really crazy brass or bronze would also work great. Use a Forstner bit in a press if you are afraid of the old hole causing the bit to walk around.

Drilling the hole in aluminum off center allows really fine tuning the adjustment, even within the new adjustable systems. I have found you can play around with the exact positioning of the hole in the rudder, and once set perfectly it GREATLY reduces the effort required to lock and unlock the cams as you can really adjust the angle the the depth at which the latch strikes the cam.






Oh.. and setting rudder rake.. Lots of people use that whole measuring off the line made by the pin.. whatever.. What I do is measure from the lower corner of the transom down 12 inches.. Make a mark on the rudder, then measure 24 in on the boat. Measure b/t those points and set both sides perfectly the same that way.. MUCH more accurate.

You set that by adjusting the Allen set screw in the lower casting for a perfect stop point.. THEN go back to upper casting. Push the adjuster latch most of the way forward and try and lock it gently with the adjustment bolt just tight enough to slip back.. This holds the rudder as tight as can be to the stop and also makes it smoother/easier to latch and unlatch..

Once you have sailed it and are happy with your adjustments.. Place some plastic/Saran wrap over the uppermost leading edge of the rudder( or coat with Vaseline, whatever) Then fill the lower casting at where the rudder meets with Silicon... Lock the rudder down and let it dry.. Then remove the plastic wrap. This will make the rudder fit very nice and tight with a bit of extra support in the locked position, and prevent maladjustment due to wear or the set screw moving around.

Least that is how I do it.

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That looks good. How is the aluminum set into place so it won't rotate within the hole?

Epoxy once everything is perfect.. Or you could drill the rudder and do a set screw really easy.. Right down the top of the rudder..

I have found though they fit tight enough that they don't really move around much at all with nothing on them.


Don't forget, a small collection of aluminum slugs with the holes different offsets from center makes putting it exactly right where you want doable..

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Once upon a time, there was a kit that you could buy that did essentially the same thing. It had plastic 1" inserts that you glued into your rudders and toothed aluminum pieces with off-center holes (similar to what you have) that fit into them. You could remove the Al inserts, rotate them by a tooth and put them in to change the hole position.

I've got one or two of them around somewhere . . .

MPB...

You should check some of those old Hotlines you have for the ads. I seem to remember either Larry Cooke or TrenTec making/marketing those back in the 70's and 80's. Funny how things come around again.

JB

I guess people thought there was less need for them after the Adjustable Castings came out? I would have bought a couple sets of those over the last few years.


My other idea would be to thread one side of the upper casting. Then use an eccentric bolt and a lock nut. This method would require more precise shims to tighten the uppercasting to the rudder with just the right amount of friction though.

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One more thing on this...


Don't be an idiot like me.. I adjusted things.. Had it working perfect, bolted everything all back together, then got in a hurry to pack up and head to a regatta.

First day it was light and fluky, but the boat really felt like it was dragging. I just chalked it up to lighter crews, not feeling well ect. Sunday we ran another two races in 10-15mph conditions.. I had GREAT starts again just to watch the fleet sail right on by. All good sailors, but just the same.. So I played with the rig and the second race of the day went a little better, but the same result.

Get the boat to the beach and had a couple people look over the boat to see if they couldn't figure something out. Then it hit me.. After racing all weekend feeling like I was dragging an anchor it finally occurs to me that I never checked the rudder alignment after playing around..

Yeah.. toed in about an inch.. good grief.... But hey.. they latch and unlatch perfectly..

I changed everything BUT that on the water.. Never even gave it a thought.

Live and learn.

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That's what those were!!!!!!! One of the many boats that have made there way through my back yard had those in the rudders.

crazy stuff

I am tired of playing with rake....head hurts.....

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H18 '85
H18 '89 "Knotty Passion"
H20 '96 "20/20 Vision"
Fleet 259 Central Coast California