Rudder Bearings

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Guest

Guest
I need new rudder bearings for my (rare!) Gib’sea as my old rudder wobbled on the spindle badly, unfortuneately they went bust a few years ago and therefore spares are unavailable. I spoke to Portway who import Gib’sea who are now a subsidiary of Dufour. They said it would need to be made locally out of a material called ESOTEL, has anyone out there had bearings made from this nylon type material, if so by whom? I hope you can help coz my boat isn’t much use at the moment!

Thanks in advance

Patrick
 
I have no knowledge of this material, and a Google search failed to find anything. Suggest you ask the dealer for some more info.

However, there are many alternatives for rudder bearings, it's not a very high tech application. Nylon 6 or 12 would probably be OK, but watch for about 5 - 10% swell in water. HDPE (high density polyethylene) is also used, as is PTFE. Any decent engineering shop should be able to turn them up and if you live in a boating centre they should be able to recommend suitable materials.
 
My Rudder bearing also failed. After consideralbe research I used a high spec polyethelene. Trade name "Tivar 100" or was it "Tivar 1000" Only one of them exists.....meant lifting out, of course, The bronze bearing carriers are glassed into the skeg and rudder. The Rudder shaft to the quadrant was all verdigris and didnt want to drop. ect. so I made sure we used the right matterial. There was no appreciable swelling and the machinist left 10 thou clearance on a 30mm ish bronze pin with Tivar bushes.
So far so good......touch wood..........twice
 
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