Friday, March 21, 2008

Rudder noise solution?


The gemini forum is regularly speckled with entries complaining about rudder slap when at anchor. This is a consequence of the raising rudder design
The Bearing Casing (pictured below) is the part that swivels and this sits in a slot. That slot has a fairly generous amount of clearance, about 2 -4 mm. In certain tide / wind conditions or even the wash from passing boats is enough to make the casing "slap" within the slot. Now if you reduce the clearance then you will have the danger of seizing the mechanism. There are various workarounds, the most popular being thin wedges pushed into the slot. Well here's my attempt at a solution. I have attached to the casing some rubber cups which bridge the gap without seizing the casing in the slot and at the swivel point some rubber tube again either side of the casing. These rubber cups are the items you place in the feet of your furniture to protect your polished floors.

Until we get back in the water theres no way of knowing how effective this will be and I'm guessing I might have to employ stronger rubber but then we are back to the problem of siezure


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