J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Rudder Install/Mount Suggestions

I am finally ready to install my rudder after a few months of drying and resurfacing. Here in the relatively balmy Northwest, we keep our boats in the water year around. When I removed the rudder, I tied a line to the tiller mount, pulled the pins, then struggled to wrestle the beast up onto the dock. Now I am contemplating on how to reverse that process without damaging the rudder, the boat or my back. Has anyone managed to install their rudder from the dock? Unfortunately, the boat is tied bow in and I am not sure if it can be turned around without the rudder in place. Does the rudder usually float with the hardware attached? Maybe I can tie a line to it, slip it into the water and float it to the back of the boat. Any suggestions? Thanks,

Turn the boat round using lines two of us do it regular with boats up too 50'

I have done that too, but at this location I am in a empty double slip with a piling seperating the two for stern ties and I am not sure how that is going to work unless I have a third person on board to fend off. I might be able to do it if it is dead calm and guide the boat in close to one side. Thanks for the suggestion.

Al,

When I installed my replacement rudder bow in, I wanted to protect the paint job and burnished surface, so I used 1/4 inch styrofoam panels with a plastic bag sleeve open at the bottom. The plan was to pull the bag up once the rudder was in place. I did that and it worked.

However, one of the benefits I hadn't planned on was the styrofoam panels made the rudder neutrally buoyant so it was very easy to position and line up the rudder pins. I'd like to say as an engineer I planned it that way,.... but I really can't!

If we buy a new rudder from Idasailor Marine, do we need to ask for something special or will they know how to help us stay in class?

That's where I got my replacement rudder last summer. They will offer all sorts of options - most of which will make the rudder not class legal (e.g. Carbon and lighter core - but why do that since there is a minimum weight). Tell them you are not looking for any special materials or a balanced design (not class legal), just good construction practices on a one design compliant rudder to insure no water intrusion. I had the rudder made with the standard vinyl ester material they offer on the baseline rudder. The mounting hardware and hole locations are not standard across different boats. From my experience, here are some suggestions.

1. Ask them to provide the stainless steel sleeves epoxied into the rudder for all locations where hardware passes through

2. The location of the tiller pivot point needs to be precisely measured and located so the hole can be drilled in the correct location on your new rudder. You can do it after the rudder arrives, but you are better sending the information to them so they can drill and isolate the hole. If this is off, the tiller or stainless bracket mounts will interfere as the tiller is raised and lowered on the pivot. See my attachment in this old thread to see the type of dimensioning needed.

3. You can buy new mounting hardware, or the old ones - I reused the old stuff. If you are reusing the rudder hardware, take precision measurement on the location of these on your existing rudder. It's best if you can send them the hardware from your existing rudder so they can precisely locate the mounting holes. It's amazing what a few thousands of an inch can do for the aggravation factor on getting the rudder back in the correct pivot location.

4. Only have them drill the holes for the lower mount. See the reason in number 3 above. The lower mount can be sleeved and epoxy isolated. Once the bracket is mounted, it is used as the reference for holding the rudder in place to locate the upper bracket.

5. You can shim and hold the rudder in position with the upper bracket in place, then drill the holes. I marked the forward hole 1st and drilled it. Then I attached the bracket with 1 bolt to hold the bracket in place, and drilled the other holes. Look at this thread and associated Blog entry and you can see how I added the isolation sleeves after the season. Since it's the upper mount it is less susceptible to water intrusion.

6. Gelcoat color - the rudder will come white. If you want another color, stripes, etc you can work with them to have that done, or have it done locally. I did (or am in process of) my own gelcoat stripes. I still have yet to wet sand and buff the stripes.

When you visited CPYC in October at the NAs, the Rhapsody rudder you saw was about 2 weeks old. It had not been gel-coated with the stripes, and the upper mounting holes were not isolated - all that is done now.

Good Luck!

Thank you very much for the great in deatil advise and your time to answer this post. I will be sure to use it.

I did the same as the above, only instead of styrofoam, I used bubble wrap. Took a long piece, taped it near the top, one wrap to the bottom then taped to the top on the other side. When done, removed the tape and pulled the bubble wrap off. Worked like a champ, Thanks