Practical Boat Owner - February 2016

PRACTICAL

➜

Hugh Morrison

describes

the course of

action involved

in fitting a new

rudder bush to a

Westerly Solway

Replacing

rudder bushes

The lowered rudder: a

strong line was tied from

a position on the boat

vertically above the rudder

Astonel in the yard, bilge keels

akimbo after a coat of Jotun’s best

W

hen a boat gets
to a certain
age, there is
a growing
collection of
issues that need to be attended
to, most of which have been part
of an effort to avoid the work
involved. But when the lower
rudder bearing, or bush, gets a
bit rattly and the surveyor of
some years previous has said to
‘keep an eye on it’, there comes
a moment when a decision is
made, new bushes are sourced
and the job becomes an
inevitable part of a cold, rainy,
muddy and sometimes
frustrating renovation.
In principle, this is one of the
most straightforward jobs on a
boat. A transom-hung rudder is
the simplest, so simple that it
hardly needs dealing with: no
holes to be dug, and an easy lift
away from the hull. A rudder at the
back end of a keel or skeg with
pintles top and bottom is also
simple. The weight of a rudder
can be a surprise, and should
always be taken into account.
A rudder stock in a rudder tube
is the one with the work involved,
and this is a description of such
a rudder mounted on a Westerly
Solway, a bilge-keel 10.9m (36ft)
ketch. This has wheel steering, a
relatively short 2in diameter
stainless steel rudder stock inside
a 2¼in rudder tube that rises to
the top bearing mounted on an
encapsulated steel crossbeam,
then to the steering quadrant, just
beneath the aft cabin bunk where

the emergency tiller can be

mounted and the boat can be

steered from the aft hatch.

Although all the retaining bolts are

metric, the stock and tube are in

imperial measurements on this

boat. Because it is a bilge-keeler,

the rudder blade is itself shorter in

depth but longer fore and aft than

its fin-keeled cousins (Conway

and Medway and W35), and this

one has a narrow ledge or plate

at the bottom, often used to

improve the flow over the rudder.

This boat is generally very easy

to work on. However, this rudder

can only just be lifted by two

people when it is clear of the

boat: it is heavy and unwieldy.

Tackling the job

We measured the approximate

length of the rudder stock from

the top of the rudder blade to

the top of the rudder stock and

dug a hole that deep from the

bottom of the rudder blade,

adding half a hand’s depth

to account for clearance and

misjudgement. Next, we placed

some blocks close to the

rudder. A small hydraulic jack

could be raised so that it

contacted the bottom of the

rudder and locked in place.

Before any attempt at

lowering took place, a strong

line was tied from a position on

the boat vertically above the

rudder stock and brought up

firm against the bottom of the

rudder. This was useful for

lowering the rudder, and should

have been useful when lifting

the rudder back into position,

although ratchet-type cargo

ties were infinitely better. This

line was lashed fore and aft

on to the rudder blade to

prevent it slipping off.

The rudder and the people

working on it must be safe once

the pins and bolts that secure it

in place start to be removed.

With the weight of the rudder

now held by the jack, I tied the

steering wires to prevent them

falling off any of the guide

sheaves, marked their position

and undid them, removing all

the retaining bolts and pins, the

quadrant, the parallel key, and

any other obstructions. The

rudder was slowly lowered using

the jack and the line around the

bottom of the rudder.