[Rhodes22-list] Rudder Rope Clutch

[Rick]

Lee,

I've been operating on a wing nut for 15 years.  Save your prayers for world
peace.

Rick

On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 4:46 PM, Leland <LKUHN at cnmc.org> wrote:

>
> I was planning on going out for a nice Sunday afternoon sail today and
> decided to first take five minutes and fix my rudder rope clutch.  When
> completely loose it's still so tight that I can barely pull the rope
> through
> by hand.  I figured that all I would need to do is loosen the bolt in the
> center of the handle.
>
> It took me awhile to determine that the bottom end of the bolt is what's
> inside the handle which is why my screwdriver and socket wrench wouldn't
> work.  The only other tool I know how to use is a hammer but I decided to
> save that for later.
>
> Have you ever taken your tiller/rudder off the boat while it's in the
> water?
> It's surprisingly heavy and unbelievably awkward.  It won't fit under the
> stern rail so you have to bring it into the cockpit on the starboard side
> to
> avoid maneuvering around the engine.  One-handed passes around the backstay
> wouldn't have been so bad if the tiller would have let go of the sternrail.
> I don't recommend working on your tiller/rudder in the cockpit but the tide
> was nearly two foot below normal and I would have never been able to
> wrestle
> the thing above my head and onto dry land.
>
> Since the bottom of the bolt was in the handle that meant that the head was
> inside the tiller/rudder housing.  Removing the clutch assembly from the
> housing was relatively easy with just one of my three tools but the rope
> guide also had to be removed from the assembly and could not be removed
> from
> the rope.  It eventually slid down into the housing and required more time
> to retrieve than it took to maneuver the entire mess into the boat.
>
> Alas I now had access to the head of the bolt but could not turn it without
> turning the handle also.  My neighbor is much stronger than me and has
> every
> tool in the world so I took it to him to fix.  After breaking it I thanked
> him and proceeded to every hardware store on Kent Island to see if I could
> rig something simple that would work.
>
> I'm now operating on a wingnut and a prayer.  It seems to work in the slip
> but I was too tired to take her out for a test sail.  Maybe tomorrow.
>
> The good news is that parts were only two bucks.
>
> Lee
> 1986 Rhodes22  AT EASE
> Kent Island, MD
>
>
> --
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> http://old.nabble.com/Rudder-Rope-Clutch-tp30973089p30973089.html
> Sent from the Rhodes 22 mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
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