Steering stiffening up

[penberth3]

Thank you everyone for the advice. The earliest lift out is next Tuesday which is cutting it fine. If all the parts aren't readily available I may end up just dropping the rudder, cleaning the shaft and persuading the bearing to open slightly. I know its only delaying the inevitable but at the moment, my family are blissfully unaware and looking forward to a 2 week cruise. I will keep you informed of my progress with pictures! Thanks Alan

A good decision there, IMHO.

 

[BoyBlue49]

Yet again I am amazed at the number of people who jump into a discussion knowing totally nothing about the subject in question or have any experience of the make of boat. Some even quoting how they repaired twin hulled and keel hung rudders, nothing like the assembly of the OP's boat. Totally useless and misleading information.
The Bavaria rudder assembly is a well engineered piece of equipment and not like most other production yachts, some of which have a GRP stock with a history of total failure and loss of rudder in mid Atlantic.
The Bavaria rudder stock is made of stainless steel and is a very strong piece of kit, the bearings do sometimes suffer from lack of use but can be easily cleaned, greased and reassembled.
If you need to know anything about Bavaria maintenance - ask Tranona.

Rant over.

 

[RichardS]

Thank you everyone for the advice. The earliest lift out is next Tuesday which is cutting it fine. If all the parts aren't readily available I may end up just dropping the rudder, cleaning the shaft and persuading the bearing to open slightly. I know its only delaying the inevitable but at the moment, my family are blissfully unaware and looking forward to a 2 week cruise. I will keep you informed of my progress with pictures! Thanks Alan

If your rudder bearings are anything like my self-aligning "doughnut" Delrin bearings in an alloy bearing cage then you will, almost certainly not need any new parts. Indeed, I would advise against new parts for several reasons. Once you have cleaned everything up with polish or a fine abrasive if really necessary, it will be as good as new. In fact, if you grease everything properly, it will probably be better than new.

Richard

 

[RichardS]

Yet again I am amazed at the number of people who jump into a discussion knowing totally nothing about the subject in question or have any experience of the make of boat. Some even quoting how they repaired twin hulled and keel hung rudders, nothing like the assembly of the OP's boat. Totally useless and misleading information.
The Bavaria rudder assembly is a well engineered piece of equipment and not like most other production yachts, some of which have a GRP stock with a history of total failure and loss of rudder in mid Atlantic.
The Bavaria rudder stock is made of stainless steel and is a very strong piece of kit, the bearings do sometimes suffer from lack of use but can be easily cleaned, greased and reassembled.
If you need to know anything about Bavaria maintenance - ask Tranona.

Rant over.

Which boats have a GRP stock? Genuine question.

Richard

 

[Bobc]

As Richard says, if you can't get a new one, then just get the doughnut out and give it, and the housing a really good clean-up and polish. The key is to get the surfaces as smooth as possible, then re-assemble with liberal amounts of silicone grease.

 

[Tranona]

Which boats have a GRP stock? Genuine question.

Richard

Many of the sporty Beneteaus flirted with them, although carbon rather than GRP. The US Hunters were notorious for using poorly designed and made GRP ones that failed regularly. Have just been reading of a failure of a carbon stock on a very expensive Swedish Omega 46 on its delivery trip to Devon. Carbon rods had not fully bonded, but hidden.

BTW Bavarias have aluminium stocks rather than stainless.