Stiff Rudder

[Case]

My Sea Sprite 23 has a stiff rudder. The boat has been well cared for by its previous owner but the rudder seems to have never been greased for the last 10 years. It is stiff. I have tried to grease it and used WD-40, pentrating oil and so on and nothing works. I was only able to loosen it slightly. The boat has been on the hard for more than 3 years. There is no grease fitting on the rudderpost itself so... I am at a loss. Stumped. The boat is sailable as is but... the rudder is too stiff for my liking, period. If anybody have any idea how to loosen the rudder, please tell me so.

[Tim]

How is your rudderpost set up? If it's like many boats of similar construction, you have a post, connected to the rudder, that simply passes through a fiberglass tube up to the cockpit. Often, there are minimal or no bearings installed; the shaft just passes through the inside of the tube to the top, where a tiller head of some sort is installed.

Perhaps some old bearing has failed , or some other obstruction is preventing the shaft from turning freely. Or perhaps the shaft has somehow bent (though I'm not quite sure how this would happen given the design of the Sea Sprite).

If you have any further info on how things are set up in your case, that might help with the diagnosis.

[Case]

Yes, the set up is similar to what you have said. No bearings at all other than a plastic bearing at the very bottom of the rudder. It is a solid bronze rudderpost thru a fiberglass tube. I did think about the possiblity of the rudderpost bent but it looks straight and the effort of turn is the same all around. I think if it was bent, it would turn more stiffy one way then looser the other way. Besides it is SOLID bronze, 1 1/2 inches or so. I cannot imagine bending that. The reluctance of turning is from that fiberglass tube, I think. The reason why I think the fiberglass tube is the cultpit because it looks rather tight... not much tolerance between the rudderpost and fiberglass tube. Barely can get pentrating oil into it and that is a thin type of oil! Since the boat has been on the hard for so long, some oxidization may have occured at the contact points of the bronze rudder post which may cause it to turn more stiffly, so I am thinking of just going ahead and dropping the damn rudder itself and lightly sand and grease the areas of contact then reinstalling it. Almost did that yesterday but the rudder refused to go out the rudder tube easily. Was too afraid of cracking the fiberglass tube. There was one or two nasty sounds of cracks so stopped before doing anymore. Will try that again tomorrow with a nice big bronze hammer and a piece of wood and bash the rudderpost thru the tube and hope I didn't trash the fiberglass tube. Do you have any suggestions other than what I am thinking of? I would rather avoid dropping the rudder in the first place.

[Tim]

I think you are at the point where you do need to drop the rudder, since there is something going on here. It may be a matter of built-up corrosion, dirt, and the like, something that a cleaning will take care of.

One final thought, though: is there any possibility that the hull has distorted, thereby affecting the direction of the rudder tube (and thus binding the shaft)? If the boat was blocked badly, this sort of thing is quite feasible.

[tartan30cirrus]

Here is how I dealt with my stiff rudder action on my T30. I dropped the rudder out of the boat, degreased the tube and shaft thoroughly and regreased with white lithium. Re installed and smooth as butter. It is possible that the bearing surface where the rudder sits in the shoe that fits on the skeg, if you have one, is worn and the source of friction. You willl get a sense for if this is the culprit when you pull the rudder. My rudder action was still stiff when the weight was off the shoe so I knew the post-tube interface was the source. My best improvement this year has not been the stereo system, the new nonskid, but rather the smooth action of the tiller/rudder.

Cheers,
Clint