Rudder Stops

[waterdog]

I've been corresponding with a C36 owner who is currently in Tonga about to make a passage to NZ.   I was interested in what if any structural modifications he had made (or wished he had made now that he's done several rough ocean passages). 

One of the things he did was add rudder stops (wooden timbers encapsulated in fiberglass) to limit the travel of the rudder.  I guess a large following sea could slam it over and present a large surface for a wave to lever against. 

I confess I haven't yet fully investigated our steering system other than to have a glance in from the aft cabin and make sure I didn't have any loose sloppy cables.   

What is the limit of travel for a C34 rudder?  How far over does she go?

What do we currently have for "rudder stops"?    What happens at the limit of travel?   

[Craig Illman]

Steve - Take a look at this PDF from Edson: http://www.edsonmarine.com/support/wheel_conversion/pdfs/S-1165.pdf 

At the rear of the quadrant is a rudder stop post secured to the quadrant by two 3/8" bolts. On my '91, at each end of travel, there are blocks about the size of a 4" 2x4 glassed to the underside of the deck. I'm surprised that the C36 wouldn't be the same and how your contact improved on that setup.

I'd GUESS there's about 140 degrees of travel?

Craig 

[waterdog]

Interesting.  What you describe sounds exactly like what he did to his boat.   Maybe they left his off at the factory.   I'll have to have a look and see what's hanging around my quadrant.

If you didn't have rudder stops, I imagine you'd just reach the end of the chain and feel a soft stop as the gear try to dig into the cable transition? Or worse...

[Bill Asbury]

Steve, my '91 C34 also has/had rudder stops as Craig described, tho during a recent survey the starboard stop was found to be missing.  I believe the missing stop was gone before I bought the boat in '05, but I haven't noticed any steering problems, so I'm not planning to replace it because of the expense of hiring someone to do the work.  My sailing is limited to the Chesapeake, so my rudder isn't exposed to the impact of large following seas such as you might experience on the open ocean.
Some others on this forum might think I'm being penny-wise and pound foolish.
Bill

[Ron Hill]

Guys : I believe this is why you have rudder stops :
The stops STOP the rudder from going past its limits - putting unnecessary strain on the cabling, chain  and the rudder quadrant.

I'm sure that ALL Catalinas leave the factory with rudder stops.  Why the C34 and Bills may be missing is unknown.  I suspect that the wheel was not locked and the boat was waked.  This caused the rudder to violently move and hit the stop/s so hard that they/or one was dislodged.  A few thoughts

[seanmcelligott]

I had to add additional rudder stops (pieces of 2x4) to my steering system when I installed my autopilot (did not encase them in fibreglass).  The rudder position sensor only had so much play and I had to limit the swing of the rudder.  I added two four inch pieces of 2x4 to each side of the qudrant housing to limit the swing.  I must say that there is no effect on the steering and that you could probably limit the rudder swing a lot more without losing much practically.  I think the rudder on the C34 is very very powerful relative to the boat.   I guess if you were going a long way pretty much straight it might be worth doing, but I hadn't heard of this danger before.