Terry,
Your point about the rudder being 40 years old is valid, and Jim is probably correct that if it were to fail, it would be at the welded joint. I am by no means trying to talk you out of the replacement, but while we are on the subject I thought I would share my experience since I went through the same thought process during this haulout and ended up going a different way with it. I knew that I wanted more rudder, but like Jim, I was concerned with the integrity of those ‘tang’ weldments to the rudder shaft. Well, I found a drawing that somewhat put my mind at ease, and we elected to stick with what we had.
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Once I saw that it was 9”x30” plate at 1/4” thickness, and that it had ~24” of welded length along the shaft, I felt a lot better about everything. That ain’t going nowhere. I could be wrong but with the Monitor as a backup I feel like I can manage the risk.
So we had it dropped and inspected anyway, and while the yard’s fiberglass expert was looking it over, we got to talking about how it performs. I showed him the above drawing and asked what he thought about adding a few square feet of surface area. He asked what I had in mind so I showed him the various rudder mods other Morgan owners had done, snapped a photo of my own, and simply sketched the following. I said I’d like the arc to be about 12-15” at most, roughly centered at the propeller.
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I asked what he thought of this and he said he liked the old school style and that it would be no problem, he could have it done over the weekend. I asked how much, he said “$1000” and I said ‘have at it’.
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As promised, my rudder showed up on Monday, was reinstalled and painted few days later, and off we went!
And what do you know, I can back to starboard now! I swear it even sails better...requires about half of the wheel trim that it used to on windier days.
All that to say that the rudder on these boats is a smart piece of structure that was
extraordinarily overbuilt. I feel like I can trust it even with the extra pressure created by the enlarged lever. If that changes, I will certainly post an update!