Chrysler Sailors Forum

I hope that it is ok to post my ongoing restoration of the 1976 C22 that I bought this last February...

I took advantage of the beautiful day and crawled under the cockpit sole to remove the thru hull for the rudder post...she was evidently damaged by the PO running aground.

I intend to replace it with a new one with somewhat beefier dimensions that I will have turned on a lathe by a friend of mine at work...material will be Delrin...I will post more when the machining is complete.

Pictures are on this photobucket link http://s746.photobucket.com/albums/xx10 ... rad61/C22/

I see where your rudder post bent just above the cheeks. Can you straighten this or will you have a new one made?

Paul

astrorad wrote:I hope that it is ok to post my ongoing restoration of the 1976 C22 that I bought this last February...

Welcome aboard - please do post, and take plenty of pics !

Hi Paul....I am going to make a new post and cheeks unit...I just ordered the new post tubing from Speedy Metals and should receive it Tuesday...I have the plate aluminum for the cheeks that I got for free but it is only 1/8 inch thick...the original was 3/16 inch...

I will either buy some 3/16 if it is not too outrageous or have my friend the welder weld a couple of horizontal angle aluminum stiffeners on each side....I think that might be adequate...my guess is that the stress on the cheeks is mostly in the horizontal plane....

I am going to get a price on the 3/16 from Speedy Metals all the same and decide what to do........Bill

Bill -- You mean to tell me your rudder post & cheeks are aluminum??? My boat came without so I have a guy making one (which seems to be taking a long time). I understood these were stainless steel, so that's what I'm expecting from him. Fortunately, he had the right size post laying around he said he would give me free. Can't beat that price, but makes it harder to push for a bump-up on his "things-to-do-I-get-paid-for" list.

Paul

Yea, while I apperciate the durability of stainless, where we see Bill's PO had a strike and the aluminum bent, it may have saved some major structural damage to the thru-hull area. It may be good to have a "weak link" here.

Just thinkin' (and oh how it hurts)

Welcome aboard Bill!
Yes, please keep up the great photos!

For everyone person that thanks you there are probably 100 that benifit!


Scott

Hello, and good luck on your new project. My C-20 rudder post and cheeks are stainles. Just drilled a new up stop bolt location to prevent the rudder and motor from connecting. STAINLESS for sure.

My old rudder post and cheeks are definitely aluminum...I can see where the cheeks must have cracked at the welds at one time and the PO had some reinforcement plates scabbed on the joints to beef up the structure.

My new rudder post arrived today from Speedy Metals...$29.24 total cost with shipping. I have some ideas about having aluminum angle welded to the post where the cheeks attach to create a nice flat area for the plates to match up to.

I think that this may help reduce stress in that area... instead of trying to
weld a longitudinal tangential seam with minimal contact area. I will post pictures to show the idea when I get a chance.

I may even skip welding the cheeks to the post and simply use epoxy and a series of stainless button head machine screws to make the attachment...there should be plenty of surface area to get good adhesion and plenty of screws to hold it.

What the heck...its worth a try! Half the fun of my hobbies is the experimentation. Some things work and some don't...I don't think that it would be catastrophic if it did fail...as long as I keep an eye on it, which should be easy when dry sailing it all the time.

All comments welcome...that's what is great about this forum...

Thanx, Bill