the 1970s, the original rudder tube was cut and fitted with a stuff-
ing box to accommodate the steering quadrant needed for the wheel.
Over the years, that stuffing box, which was difficult to access, was a
constant source of minor leaks. As a result, in my seemingly never-
ending quest to remove holes in the boat below the waterline, this
stuffing box seemed like a good candidate.
Looking at other boats, I found many designs with rudder tubes
extended all the way up into the cockpit above the waterline. A bushing
or bearing was usually located where the tube poked through the cock-
pit sole, so that even if a little water were to splash up that far, it would
run harmlessly into the cockpit scuppers. I decided that this would be
my best option and set to work.
Given that I would need to replace my rudderstock, I determined that
the new stock would need to be 9in longer than the current one and then
set to work dropping the rudder. As a first step I unbolted the strap that
attached the rudder and stock to the keel and lifted it off the keel shoe. I
then began the nerve-wracking process of digging a hole under the boat,
only to discover there was a solid ledge about 6in underneath the keel
that prevented me from digging any deeper. I ended up cutting the 1.5in
stainless steel rudderstock with a Sawzall and many carbide blades, and
sent the resulting pieces off to a machinist to fabricate a new one.
While this was being done I made the new rudder tube using a 2ft
piece of structural fiberglass tubing with an inner diameter of 2in. As
a first step I ground down the inside of the bottom with a small drum-
sanding bit until the inner diameter was 2.5in. This allowed the new tube
to fit nicely over the top of the existing rudder tube where it extended up
from the bottom of the boat. After that I took a shorter 3in-long section
of tubing and ground the inner diameter out to 2.5in and epoxied it in
place over the existing tube to act as a collar and tie in the new section. I
let that cure for a day or so before moving onto alignment.
Because the tolerances on the rudder stock are pretty tight, I needed
to make sure the new rudder tube was perfectly aligned from the bottom
of the keel all the way up into the cockpit. To do this I tied a string to the
rudder heel on the keel and ran it up through the old tube (with the collar
epoxied on) and through the new tube that fit over the old tube. This gave
me a perfectly straight line from the bottom of the keel into the cockpit.
Once everything was aligned, I epoxied the new tube onto the old tube
and permanently mated it with the collar. Finally, I wrapped the entire
joint in five layers of 9oz epoxy-impregnated cloth tape and let it all cure.
While waiting for the new rudder-tube joint to fully harden, I cut an
angled 3in hole in a 12in square piece of half-inch structural fiberglass
plate that would serve to connect the top of the rudder tube to the cock-
pit sole. I didn’t quite get the hole-saw angle correct, and the plate lay flat
on the cockpit sole with the tube protruding through, so I used a round
file to widen the hole until I got a perfect fit.
When I got the new 1.5in stainless steel rudderstock back from the
machinist, I test fitted it, along with a bronze bushing, to make sure the
stock was perfectly centered in the rudder tube before laminating the top
plate to the tube and cockpit sole. Fortunately, all my measurements were
correct, and the resulting assembly looked great. However, when I stepped
back and looked at it from the cabin, something seemed off, and taking
out a tape measure I found the center of the tube was off almost an entire
inch to port. I rechecked all my measurements and checked to make sure
the rudderstock rotated in the tube properly—it did. The only possible
explanation was that the keel was out of line with the cockpit’s centerline.
A quick search online revealed this is not uncommon, and that manyOnce everything was aligned, the new tube was epoxied
onto the old tube and both were permanently mated to
the collar. The entire joint was wrapped in five layers of
9oz epoxy-impregnated cloth and left alone to cureThe new rudder tube made from a 2ft long piece of
structural fiberglass tubing. The inner diameter was
originally 2in. To make the new tube fit over the top of the
existing tube the author ground down the inside so the
diameter measured 2.5inThe new fiberglass collar was made of a 3in piece of
tubing with the inner diameter ground down to 2.5in to
fit on top of the old rudder tube. After it was fitted to the
tube it was epoxied on and left alone to cure for a day
before being set in place1
2
3
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PHOTOS BY MATT BOWSER SAIL MAGAZINE