Bent rudder shaft - Westerly Centaur

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Turbonic

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Hello all, Quick "best approach" question.

My father has a westerly Centaur, and upin taking it out the water we found that the rudder shaft has a bend in it. the bend effectively causes the rudder to hang down at a 7'oclock angle as viewed from the stern facig toward the bow.

Rudder was dropped and the bend is at the rudder/rudder tube interace.

Putting aside the obvious question how it happened , it is a new boat to my father, and he assures me that "of course I didn't do it you spotty little git"
How best to get this back true? Huge press? _ I wonder how to concentrate the force upon the specific area and ensure that the GRP areas of the rudder itself arent damaged?

Any ideas?
Cheers, Nic.
 
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My friend removed his bilge keel rudder and discovered his is also bent.
It was not apparent when it was on the boat as it did not cause any problems so it will be put back as it is.
Would think that bending it back would mean removing the rudder blade, then maybe weakening it ?
Other option would be the expense of replacing all of it.
 
Depends where it is bent.

I spent a fair bit of time with my old Churchill big press straightening motorcycle fork tubes.

Being able to rotate the shaft and support it in the right places is key. Easy with a fork tube, not so with a sodding great flap attatched!

IMHO, you wont be worried about achieving the tolerences I worked to, a few thou, but a mm or so.

I can see a home made jig, shaped hardwood blocks and a trolly jack...............................

Good luck.
 
Depends on which type of rudder it is. This sounds like the early type which is an unsupported spade rudder with a 1" shaft - and they do bend. As you suggest, you can get it straightened in a press. worth checking the rudder tube and bearing at the same time.

Join the Westerly Owners Association as this is a known issue and there will be advice such as this
westerly-owners.co.uk/centaur-rudder-bearing-by-simon-howarth/
 
WOA best place to ask, join to post in forum. Quicker method is Facebook: two groups, official and un. Fit new bushes at same time. You’ll need to dig a hole to refit it!
 
Tranona said:
Depends on which type of rudder it is. This sounds like the early type which is an unsupported spade rudder with a 1" shaft - and they do bend. As you suggest, you can get it straightened in a press. worth checking the rudder tube and bearing at the same time.

Join the Westerly Owners Association as this is a known issue and there will be advice such as this
westerly-owners.co.uk/centaur-rudder-bearing-by-simon-howarth/
Click to expand...

From memory, I think they were all unsupported. Our Centaur was one of the last years production and appeared to have a skeg but , it was just a fairing with no lower hinge.
 
Cheers Guys,
It as indeed unsupported - I seem to remember the shaft being thicker than an inch but no matter, Will probably have a mess around with a press and try to spread the load over the rudder itself.

Thanks.
 
My local propeller repair shop took 10 mins and a "drink" to straighten a substantial bronze motorboat "P" bracket using a press.
Is it worth faffing about DIY ?.
Must be somebody local to you with the kit to do this job.
 
I can only suggest if you don’t have any more replies try the local regional westerly owners forum as I think membership fees is quite modest. The great advantage of the centaur with so many out there is there’s little new under the sun. The issue is almost an oversupply of views sometimes but I sure an email to local branch of WOA might elicit some options of places that have done this before
 
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