[quote=bobcatnj]In keeping with the theme of a free beach cat isn't....
I borrowed a caliper from my grandfather to compare the size of the rudder blades...which I'll get to in another post. -
I took a look at the 2 rudder castings I have. Port is a replacement STB is original. When I got the boat the port casting was broken in 3-4 pieces. I was told a rudder caught the corner of the garage while moving it around. Upon closer inspection the Stb casting is bowed out at the 3:00 position to nearly 2X the width and it appears to be bent up where the casting meets tiller arm. The tiller cross bar bolts were both bent one worse than the other, and the only delam I've got is in the stern from the crossbar aft. So I assume that someone backed into the cat and forced the rudders apart snapping one casting and bending the other. The crossbar seems to be fine.
I figure the only way to have any hope of a cat that will not have sloppy rudders is to start with 2 true castings and round holes in the tiller arms with straight bolts. So the bent casting is going into the spares pile and a new casting is on order.
Does anyone have a good step by step of rudder repair involving the a pretty large ding on the trailing edge? Saw a good one on youtube w/ a british guy on a lazer but not sure if those steps apply for the west system. He used polyester resign and bondo.[/quote]
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