rudder vibration?

[sdaly66]

Hi folks,

Took delivery yesterday.  Sailed from Annapolis down to the West River and finally home to Casa Rio on Cadle Creek.

Winds variable 8 - 22 apparent, making most of the trip on two long tacks at about 40 degrees apparent.

She sails like a dream, I love her.

But I have a question.

When the weather helm gets strong, I'm getting serious vibration.  I assume it's coming from the rudder.

On the survey, it was noted that the sterring cables needed tightening. The surveyor said, "you should be fine but you want to tighten them sooner rather than later."

Could this be the culprit?  Or am I looking at something more ominous that I should have checked out?

This is all new to me, my C 250 had a stern rudder on a tiller pinned to the stern, so wheel steering and hull rudder is all new.

As a final note, I LOVE MY WHEELPILOT !!!!!!!!

[Craig Illman]

Vibration in the wheel? It's probably turbulence from the prop? Time for your first upgrade, a folding prop! I had a former owner tell me his weather helm/round-up disappeared when he switched to a folder.

Craig

[sdaly66]

No the vibration doesn't transfer to the wheel.  But it shakes the boat, especally down below.

Now, I'm guessing it's the rudder only because it seems to crop up with weather helm but not when I ease her off.

The vibration is strong enough that it shakes the salon table visibly, and seems worse toward the stern of the boat.

[Craig Illman]

Ouch - mine doesn't seem to do that.

Craig

[Jeff Kaplan]

sdaly, if the surveyor said to tighten up the cables, do it. if not tight, the rudder will vibrate and steering will feel soft, maybe thats what you felt. also, if you didn't, remember to keep the transmission in reverse when sailing. if the prop is free spinning you will feel vibrations and it is not good for the trans., shaft and cutlass brg....jeff

[sdaly66]

Reverse?  That's interesting. I thought neutral or forward.  thanks for the tip.  I'll try that next and see if I that's the issue.

[sdaly66]

Yeah, first time out. So I'm out there in the middle of the bay thinking everything from "Well this is just a characteristic" to "holy moley, the keels coming loose"

[Ron Hill]

66 : Always give your hull# and production year, so we know what kind of C34 you have.
Tighten up the steering cable and get out the slack.  BTW, both adjusting nuts should be turned at the same.
time.

NEVER, sail with the transmission in "forward".  From what you've said so far, I think you need to surf our web site and read your owners boat and engine manuals!!! before you do too much more sailing.  

[Stu Jackson]

Hi Shawn, and welcome and congratulations.  Nice to have the first sail "under your belt."

Now that you know your hull # and all that, let us know the facts  :)(http://c34.org/bbs/index.php?topic=1506.0)

Noise and vibrations, sights and smells are pretty hard to diagnose over the Internet, but the recommendations above are valid and I recommend that you check them out.

For instance, the throttle lever position information is her in in the  FAQs: http://www.c34.org/faq-pages/faq-transmission-position-sailing.html

One way to "get to' that information is using Jon Schneider's new Knowledgebase via the Tech Notes page described in one of the first posts on the Board right above: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php?topic=3362.0

Once you get into the Knowledgebase spreadsheet, just use CTRL F and search on the word transmission, and the spreadsheet will give you a direct link to that article.  As you'll see, we're working on helping to make the the large volume of information easier to find.  The NEW searchable Knowledgebase, in a format in Excel that (almost) everyone has, is another step in helping you to find answers to your questions based on subject areas and other search methods for the "Original Website" portion of the website.  This message board also has that feature on it's own.

We'll be glad to point you to the information, and when you become a member of the C34 IA you'll get a CD-ROM with much of that information.

While you're getting familiar with your boat, we invite you to become familiar with the website which has helped many of us learn lots of stuff about our boats.

Fair winds, keep comin' back (when you're not on the boat, that is)  .

[Gary]

The vibration to weather under increasing winds may be harmonic oscillation in the mast.  This can be adjusted by checking shroud tensions and or changing tensions.  A test would be to ease tension on the main travelor or the main sheet.  If the mast is the culprit you should see a difference in vibration when forces on the mast are changed by these two adjustments. 

[sdaly66]

Stu/Gary,

Thanks, I'm all over it.

Hitting this site hard and making a notebook.  Amazing how much you learn that you still have to learn.  Years of sailing under me but mostly on other peoples' boats or on my 250.  Not nearly as many moving parts there as here.

[Ed Shankle]

I agree with Gary; sound like mast pumping. I've had that when the rig wasn't tuned.

Ed