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It has happened that a decades old, and even very new rudders, would start spinning loosely on the shaft, in the middle of an ocean. With no steerage, it makes for a very difficult situation to overcome. With each passing year, I became more concerned with what unseen things were happening inside of our 44 year old rudder. Before crossing the Atlantic to Tierra Del Fuego, I thought it might be worth a peek inside our rudder and check on the spline to shaft assembly.
We met a couple who lost their rudder twice leaving the Canaries for the West Indies. They sold that Bavaria and flew across and bought another, but told us they would never take it offshore, just intraisland.
Every seaman should know how to steer with a jury drogue and test it at least once. Doing it well requires practice. An anchor and fenders work, with a bridle to the secondaries. A drogue is better.
I had a rudder failure once (hit submerged log). This got me home without trouble.
We used everything from mattresses to buckets to try to steer a boat without a rudder, but we were unable to get the boat to handle sufficiently well to enter Ala Wai harbor channel in Honolulu. We had to call the USCG and the idiots sent a 120' vessel to tow Araner, a 125' ketch, into the marina. A marina where maneuvering a 75' boat is tight.
It all worked out OK, but it took a great deal of convincing to get the CG captain to squeeze his boat up into a corner so we could get to a dock. Had they sent a 45 footer it all would have been so much easier.
Just got a new rudder built for our Ericson 35. They didn't have the mold for original so we got a similar cool shape and like it a lot. Boats still on the hard so we haven't sailed with it yet tho.
Several folks have done this upgrade for the Ericson 35-2, with comments on the Ericson owners' site. It is a variant of a later elliptical design for the Cal 40, and is a really nice upgrade.
Other Ericson's and sometimes Olson's have done this as well.
As for Foss Foam, there seems to be some internet confusion over which company does what, with a plant in Florida and one in California. Maybe they were related at one time, and still might be.
As for Foss Foam, there seems to be some internet confusion over which company does what, with a plant in Florida and one in California. Maybe they were related at one time, and still might be.
We had a rudder made by Foss Foam in Florida and visited their facility. They have a ton of molds from about every production boat lying around in their back yard. It was like going through an archeology dig of 60-90's boat production. If they don't have your exact model mold, there is a good chance they have one very close to it and can modify it to fit.
Foss is mentioned in the 2 part series about rudders on attainable adventure cruising. Worth reading. mr. Childress is quite skilled. For most who are going to trust their rudder in blue water the expense of having a pro do it is probably worth it imho. That article also reviews that there’s two Foss rudder companies.
Most rudders insides must be kept dry. Amel figured out a way to have the insides wet but not deteriorate. Don’t know if they still do them that way.
Other issue not discussed is bearings. These wear. Especially on passagemakers. Trying to wiggle the rudder when it’s on the hard isn’t a sufficient check.
Finally if you’re going to replace a rudder and have deep pockets make the whole damn thing out of CF. No chance of rust, rot or other issues and better gyradius so better performance.
Great video, so well done. Everything explained in such detail. Thank you for that effort. I know so much more now in case I ever need to pull and repair a rudder.
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