Siempre Sabado (W28) is currently on the hard in San Carlos, Mexico.  Among the projects planned is, hopefully, tightening up the slop in the rudder.  We have slop at the tiller to rudder connection but we also have slop in the rudder itself.  Not sure what we need to do about it yet but I do know that we need to take a looke at the pintles and gudgeons to see where the slop is located.  It appears that the pintles are simply bolted to the rudder and that, if the bolts were removed, the rudder could simply be pulled sideways off the pintles.  Is this right?  Any surprises I might be in for, other than the weight of the rudder?  Any idea what the rudder on a W28 weighs?

Stephen Yoder wrote:Siempre Sabado (W28) is currently on the hard in San Carlos, Mexico.  Among the projects planned is, hopefully, tightening up the slop in the rudder.  We have slop at the tiller to rudder connection but we also have slop in the rudder itself.  Not sure what we need to do about it yet but I do know that we need to take a looke at the pintles and gudgeons to see where the slop is located.  It appears that the pintles are simply bolted to the rudder and that, if the bolts were removed, the rudder could simply be pulled sideways off the pintles.  Is this right?  Any surprises I might be in for, other than the weight of the rudder?  Any idea what the rudder on a W28 weighs?

-Steve

I wasn't there when the rudders were removed at Ladd's -- but the rudders were either removed for repair and/or hung from the boom gallows with a spare line.  2 can handle the rudder easily IMHO.

On Pygmalion- I had slop between the tiller and rudder - used plastic shims to take up the space on each side of the tiller.

Hope this helps. 

Thanks Jay and Tyler.  Jay, the photo album was very helpful.

Steve,

I've had the rudder off on both the 28's I've owned.  It's a simple procedure as you have already figured.  Remove the 12 nuts and bolts that pass thru the rudder and pintals and slide the rudder off to the port side.  Don't forget to remove the tiller first. (spoken from experience)  Years of bottom paint may work as a glue of sorts around the pintals.

 I used 2 block and tackles attached to my boomkin (1 on Port and 1 on Starboard) and tied a harness of lines around the rudder to take the load.  The rudder is more awkward than heavy, but with two people and the block and tackle it is not a difficult operation to remove or reinstall.

I found that much of my wobble was from a badly worn top pintal on my boat.  Bud can supply a direct replacement.  My lower 2 pintals were both ok, but I replaced all 3 of them anyway. 

Like others have said some shims on either side of the tiller will eliminate the tiller wobble.  It seems as though the Westsail stainless tillerhead boxes were not made square they all seem to be wider on the forward ends and taper in as they go aft.  I found a couple of pieces of 1/8" delrin sheet that I attached to the sides at the end of my tiller and sanded them to match the tillerhead box tapper.  You may also want to attach a piece of material to the bottom of your tiller where it exits the tillerhead box.  I found the tillers on my boats rested a little too low so I was constantly holding them up a couple inches and over time it gets heavy.  This is only an issue if one is doing a lot of hand steering.

Kevin

I don't know about other owners' Associations, but the members of the WOA are a truly helpful bunch.  Where else can you ask boat-specific questions and get comprehensive answers in a few hours or, at most, a day or so?  Thank you all.