Cracked weld in tiller arm - anyone fixed this before?

[WaveyDavey]

On my port tiller arm, I have just noticed a crack in the weld on the underside of the elbow.

Applying gentle pressure to the arm opens and closes the crack - so there must be movement there all the time when sailing in a reasonable breeze - only a matter of time until it fails.

Has anyone got experience of getting this repaired? Were you successful and did the repair last? Can anyone recommend an aluminium welder in the Essex area up to the job?

If all else fails I'll pay out for a new one, but they're nearly £100 each so I would rather not if possible.

[Martin Searle]

On my port tiller arm, I have just noticed a crack in the weld on the underside of the elbow.

Applying gentle pressure to the arm opens and closes the crack - so there must be movement there all the time when sailing in a reasonable breeze - only a matter of time until it fails.

Has anyone got experience of getting this repaired? Were you successful and did the repair last? Can anyone recommend an aluminium welder in the Essex area up to the job?

If all else fails I'll pay out for a new one, but they're nearly £100 each so I would rather not if possible.

My rudders had this a couple of years back and one of our club members welded it back up for me.

Interestingly the port one did crack again late last season but unfortunately I had it stolen from my house before I could get it re-welded so I had to buy all new metalwork which was probably overdue (both bits were about 16yrs old so were probably at their MTBF's), I had an old blade to use with the new bits.

Also one or two of our older club boats also had the port rudder joint crack at that point too, so it does seem that there is a weakness there for some reason.

Martin Searle

[George Stephen]

Try looking up Welders in your Yellow Pages or in the business section of your local telephone directory. Some of them will do aluminium welding, which is rather more specialist than welding steel and the ilk.

Getting the angle right when the tiller arm is being welded would seem to be important. It might be possible to use the other tiller arm upside down as a crude template.


George Stephen

[WaveyDavey]

Thanks Martin and George for the useful info.

There are a couple of listings the local Yellow Pages who specifically mention aluminium welding. I'll give one a try.

Thankfully, the crack is small and so the tiller arm is intact and its shape not distorted (yet). I'll make up a template before the job is done to measure the final result.

I don't know much about welding, so I'm not sure if its possible just to mend the crack, or whether the welder would have to break the joint and re-weld the whole thing. I'll see what the experts have to say and report back here how I get on.

[darth vader]

Hi Could you let us know how you get on I have just checked minne and noticed something similar,some one mentioned MIG welding to me dont know what it is so any info would be useful.

[WaveyDavey]

I dropped the tiller arms off with a welder in Pitsea yesterday. The job should be done by the end of the week so I'll report back on the end result then.

[Charles]

This is probably a timely warning for all those sailors out there with red & green tape on the elbows of their tiller arms, to take it off & have a look at the weld.

You can always put the tape elsewhere if you really can't remember which hull to attach each rudder to !!

Charles.

[WaveyDavey]

Just got the tiller arms back from Fine Limit Welding:

10, Britannia Court, Basildon, Essex SS13 1EU
Tel: 01268 725988
finelimitwelding@blueyonder.co.uk

The man behind the show is Martin Harrison.

The cost was £25+vat to get both port and starboard arms re-welded. The final result looks tidy, though the new weld is necessarily larger than the original and now goes all the way around the tiller arm because the outer edge (not welded originally) was where part of the cracking occurred.

All I need to do is spray the welded area to prevent corrosion where Martin had to remove the anodising.

The real proof of the job will be how both arms are holding up after a season's use. I'll report back in the Autumn. So far though, I'm very happy.