Play in rudder mechanism

[WaveyDavey]

There’s a fair amount of play in my overall rudder mechanism. Coming from the precise and smooth steering on my RS600 this feels cumbersome and slow, especially downwind in moderate to high winds when load on rudders can shift with gusts and waves. Constant but perceptible movement is distracting, and probably not good for speed either.

A certain amount play comes from the tiller bar attachment to the tillers – I don’t think the plastic ends are especially worn, so I guess this is designed-in to allow free movement.

The next area of movement are the gudgeons on both rudder stock (bottom) and transom (top). These castings are moderately worn inside being softer than the stainless pintles that sit in them. I have considered replacing the gudgeons (costs about £40) but here’s a couple of questions:

1. Looking pictures of spares on the Windsport site it looks like the design has changed since my boat (1448) was built – are the old printles compatible with new gudgeons, or do I have to replace the whole lot?

2. This might sound crazy, but has anyone tried drilling out and lining their gudeons with a short length of aluminium tube to restore the original diameter – or am I the only one to think of such silly things?

Cheers
David

[Bob Carter]

Hi David
It has been my experience that a bit of slack in the rudders is not a bad thing. On a Catamaran it lets the 2 rudders follow each other when you are going straight and reduces drag. You can have too much of a good thing, however. Soon after your boat the linkages were improved. The tiller extension was fitted with a bendy rubber universal joint instead of the notchy steel swivel. Also plastic ends were fitted on the end of the conrod and there were shorter pins on the tillers which made it much smoother in operation.
I have never heard of the gudgeons being replaced for wear on the pintles and I recommend that you leave them alone if the rudders go up and down OK. It is more normal for the large hole for the rudder pivot bolt/shoulder washers in the stocks to wear/corrode so the whole rudder wobbles about. When this gets bad you have to replace the whole stocks which is quite costly but the gudgeons do get changed at the same time!!
I am unaware of any changes to the gudgeons in the life of the Dart 15/ Sprint 15.
I hope this helps.
Cheers
Bob
PS If you boat is 1448 it has not got any of the stuff mentioned above. If it is 1488 it may have. 1488 was called Screamers Dance when it was at Grafham a few years ago.

[WaveyDavey]

Thanks Bob. Perhaps I'll leave well alone then.

My tiller extension has the rubber universal joint, and the conrod has plastic ends. I suspect both have been replaced by previous owners. The rudders go up and down and generally stay in either position. All told - I can't complain.

[Brian Phipps]

May be also look art the rudder bolt assembly and rubber buffer at the bottom of the A frame, all these things if worn or damaged allow the blade to move in the A frame , just grab the blade tip and move it laft and right to identify wher the movement is.
Guess a few people could write and essay on rudder slop!!
Brian Windsport

[Derek James]

Hi,
I have just refurbished my Sprint 15 after the nationals . I had a real problem with my rudder mechanism , thanks Ed for the gentle rear end shunt , so decided to try and refurbish them . No rocket science or great technical knowledge involved . I basically cleaned and degreased all of the moving parts that I could access or undo . I then applied a thin greace to all moving parts . The thing that made the greatest improvement though was tightening up all of the nuts and bolts . Particuarly the centre bolt and the upper bolt that the arms pivot around . Do not over tighten but remove as much of the play as possible . My rudders now raise and lower from the tramp and feel solid in the water . hope this helps and sorry if you have already tried .

[WaveyDavey]

Thanks Derek for the additional info.

I set my boat up on the launching trolley, bows down, the other weekend so I could examine the source of movement in the rudders when locked down.

Front to back movement was minimal, with the locking mechanism holding the blades against new padding I recently fitted to the base of the stock.

Latteral movement (of which there is a reasonable amount at at the rudder tip) was almost exclusively due to play in the lower gudgeon (that's the lower casting rivited to the rudder stock). The pintles and upper gudgeon looked relatively free of movement.

I notice the lower gudgeon castings are 'only' £10 each (+ rivets) so if all that rattling around really gets to me I may splash out.

[Bob Carter]

I notice the lower gudgeon castings are 'only' £10 each (+ rivets) so if all that rattling around really gets to me I may splash out.

Sounds like it is worth changing the lower gudgeon castings then. The sort of slack that is beneficial is more in the steering angle rather than in the verticality. Wear like you have is quite rare in my experience. perhaps your boat has been sailed heavily on the sea when sand can work it's way around the lower pintel.
I'm sure that 1488 has spent a fair bit of time at Grafham (owned by Pete Ansboro).
Cheers
Bob

[Bob Carter]

I see that the quote worked out the wrong way. This came about by my trying to quote just one sentence of Waveydavey's posting. It does not seem that I can - Is this right Martin?

[Robert]

- Is this right Martin?

I just rub out the bits I don't want in the message body but make sure I leave entirely alone the square brackets and their contents. If I accidentally rub these out then I just re-type them.