Rudder question
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Hi,
I took Zephyr #111 out On Watauga Lake TN for the 4th time yesterday. During the sail the tiller became very difficult to move. I thought we had picked some debris so I sent a crew member over to take a look. He didn’t see anything. She is still able to sail but it is hard to easily make subtle course corrections.
As you swing the tiller from port to starboard and relate the movement to a clock with 3 o’clock and nine o’clock being hard over in both directions, it only seems to bind from 5 o’clock to 7 o’clock.
Before I bought her, she was dry sailed for about 10 years. I have had her for about a month, she sits in the water in a slip on Watauga Lake.
I plan to dive on her this week and see for myself if there is some debris or line wrapped around the rudder shaft
Has anyone else experienced this? Could the lower bearing have swelled from sitting in the water? Gotten some debris lodged in the bearing? Bearing is failing or failed?
Thank you in advance for your help.
Marc
Bearings won’t swell, they are delrin.
How much up and down movement do you have? Should be less than a 1/4″.
Did you hit anything? Is your rudder shaft fiberglass or stainless?
Probably should pull the boat and look.
How much up and down movement do you have? Should be less than a 1/4″. Not sure how to check.
Did you hit anything? Not that I am aware. However there was a lot of small debris in the lake.
Is your rudder shaft fiberglass or stainless? I don’t know.
Try lifting the rudder via the tiller straight up.
I bet you have something stuck in there. spin the rudder 360 a few times.
Bruce, you were 100% correct. 3 360 degree spins and it feels like new. Thank you very much for your help.
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