"Leoma" update rudder

[JD-MDR]

Merry Christmas
Launched on Friday looks good. Charged me a fortune. I had them remount the worm drive gear and the auto pilot motor hoping to make it smoother. It didn't help but it looks much better. The sleeve/bearing they put on the rudder post seems to make it a little stiffer.. I hope it will wear in after a while. There was discussion on the Cruiser forum about the Delrin sleeves swelling up and causing a little more friction. I think it will be more problem for the windvane. I will take her out next weekend.
I'm starting to load the boat up for the trip and get rid of all the extra stuff on C-list. Amazing,people are actually calling me .

[John Stone]

Merry Christmas John. It can be a hectic time but you worked hard to get here. Enjoy it. You deserve it.

[Seaweed2]

It looks like your boat is cribbed no more than 18 inches off the ground. Did they need to raise the boat to install the repaired rudder or was the shaft short enough to slide in without an issue?

[JD-MDR]

It looks like your boat is cribbed no more than 18 inches off the ground. Did they need to raise the boat to install the repaired rudder or was the shaft short enough to slide in without an issue?

Yes, and they charged me some for the travel lift . I'll have to check to see if they charged me twice because they did the dryfit and then the final install. I think they charged about $100.

[Seaweed2]

Thank you for the rudder info and pictures. It gives me confidence to see the structure of the rudder on a CD. In 1983 we sailed a 24' Columbia from Florida to the Bahamas and about 20 miles before reaching Nassau our rudder gave out. We did most of the repair ourselves in Nassau harbor but that rudder was a shaft with two flat wings welded to it and the welds both broke. I've always been a little uneasy about the stresses on a rudder since then. This design looks a lot more substantial than what we had.

The details of construction go a long way in establishing optimism as well as allowing one to address/assess both potential and actual problems. Having gone to boat shows and witnessed the utter foolishness in modern boat building with multiple systems that cannot even be seen, accessed, or repaired I am continually convinced that my CD was an excellent choice.

I wish you fair seas and good winds on your journey.

[JD-MDR]

Yay I’m glad someone was helped by my post. It looks like the yard only charged $50 to lift the boat to remove the rudder. Although they lifted a few times because after dryfit they had to bring travel lift back to remove it again to finish fiberglas. Then come back again for final install. Dont worry they really charged me alot for the rudder rebuild and reinstalling the worm gear, autopilot motor and the seal on the rudder post