Rudder Stops

[claymore]

Last September I had a dry-mouthed moment when the rudder jammed - I'd been easing backwards out of a tricky corner in windy conditions and the pressure of water on the blade jammed it on full rudder. The forum suggested fitting stops and it seemed a good idea. I'm about to go and weigh the job up and am just thinking about the autopilot. I assume that I'll have to adjust the length of travel on the arm to the rudder or the pilot will be trying to push the rudder where it cannot go with stops fitted. I assume this will in turn burn out the motor/damage the hydraulic pump. Am I thinking clearly or imagining problems that won't exist?
Regards
John S

What care we - tho' white the Minch is,
What care we boys, for wind or weather?

 

[jtwebb]

My Raytheon autohelm itself limits angle of movement and is a settable parameter. The warrenty is invalid if rudder stops are not fitted to prevent manual helming using the ram as the stops. I therefore put stops on and padded them until the ram was not itself on the limits.

J Webb

 

[andrewhopkins]

calibration

With my Autohelm 4000+, it needs calibrating if you mess around with the rudder cables, etc.

Press a few buttons according to the manual and the wheel gets spun round to port and when it hits its limit its spins to starboard and then back again. It then works out where the midway position is.

Don't know what you've got but it might be similar.

 

[Chris_Stannard]

Regret to say but you have forgotten you should not use full rudder going astern as this will strain the structure around the rudder which is not designed to deal with the forces generated. I suggest you try to limit yourself to no more than half rudder and never let the wjheel go so it bangs over.

Chris Stannard

 

[claymore]

Yes - thanks for that Chris - normally I do remember but I was rushing and about to make a monkeys bugger of the whole operation. I think that rudder stops will be no bad thing anyway?
regards
John S

What care we - tho' white the Minch is,
What care we boys, for wind or weather?

 

[mtb]

Is your rudder balanced ,by that I mean a % in front of the stock, 20% would certainly make a massive difference when going astern .
Also a couple of vanes each side would also help steering ,but to be realy posh a rudder that is shaped like a section of a wing with both the above then your realy posh.
Mick


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