Rudder System Rebuild 42 Commander

This was the first job I did when I bought my 42 Commander. One of the rudder ports was completely worn out and the whole support system was rotting off the boat.

Virtually nothing left of the bolts holding the blocks for the rudder supports.

The bolts were rusted into the bronze tiller arms. I spent hours heating and beating to free the tillers from the rudder so I could drop the rudders.

The clevis for the tiller had rusted so badly I was able to rip it off by hand.

Brand new rudder port from Chris-Parts

The old mahogany wedges were fairly soft and rotting after over 50 years. So I made 2 new blocks.

To strengthen up the blocks to prevent splitting and some rot prevention I epoxied a layer of 1708 to each side.

I set the block up in my drill press to bore the correct angle hole.

All new hardware, bedded and sealed in Sikaflex 291

For the top support I decided to have stainless top plates fabricated by Kehrig MFG. I made 2 templates for them to work off of.

I replaced these clevis with bronze

Mocking up my trim tab brackets and drilling it at home on the drill press.

I made new blocks for the top support out of mahogany then secured them to the stringers by bedding them in Thixo then glassing them to the stringers with 6 layers of 1708in epoxy.

Finally all done, everything mounted up. I used all stainless hardware, I used a large bronze washer as a bearing.