[Rhodes22-list] Rudder Askew

[Peter Nyberg]

For as long as I’ve owned Silverheels, when the boat is at rest the tiller will move firmly to the port side of the cockpit.  For years I’ve intended to investigate this phenomenon, but it’s hard to do when the boat is in the water, and then hard to remember when the boat is ashore.  Today, I finally remembered.

I transferred the boat from its trailer onto stands in preparation for working on the bottom.  I then put an 8’ 2x4 across the cockpit combings, put a 4’ level on top of that, and then leveled the boat port-to-starboard.  

I then put a level vertically on the transom along side the edge of the two gudgeons and found the the bottom one is about 1/2 an inch closer to the port side of the boat than the bottom one.  That may not sound like a lot, but if you take a step back, it’s quite easy to see that the rudder is not vertical and obviously not perpendicular to the rub-rail.

I think I have a pretty good idea of how to go about making the rudder vertical, but before I start, I thought it would be a good idea to check with the list (and Stan, if he’s out there).  

The rudder should be vertical, right?  The cockeyed rudder is not part of Phil Rhodes design and General Boats intellectual property, is it?

Just wanted to be sure.

Thanks,

Peter Nyberg
Coventry, CT
s/v Silverheels (1988/2016)