Bavaria 42 Caribic (1989) Rudder

[Paul H]

Hi,

After hitting an unknown underwater object, with my rudder, my steering suddenly became stiff. I sailed to the nearest haul-out facility to have things checked out. I seems that I have sustained damage beyond repair to my rudder and I need a replacement. I contacted Jefa who tell me they have no specifications for my model. Could anybody offer me some advice as to the way forward with this problem? Thanks in advance, Paul

[Yngmar]

What is wrong with the rudder? Just fibreglass damage, bent shaft, broken tangs? Rudder blades can be repaired or rebuilt if the shaft is okay. Broken tangs can be welded (after splitting the rudder). Unless the rudder is gone entirely, you can still take the required measurements for shaft and rudder blade off it if you need a entirely new one.

[JEN-et-ROSS]

   It's a long story,but....
We have a 1991 Bavaria Lagoon 38 that I suspect has exactly the same rudder/steering installed.
Several years ago one winter a large rock, estimated at 5 tonne came off the cliff-face behind our laid-up yacht.
It took out the rudder, broke out the top and bottom bushes from the hull and did considerable damage to the steering linkages and auto-pilot.
On examination it was discovered that the rudder stock, 100mm Dia. was also slightly distorted, the rudder GRP encapsulation was broken in two places.

Ultimately the insurance company decided that it could be repaired, I was dubious, but these rudders are obviously well built as the rebuild was (eventually) a success.
I can't believe your damage is more severe that the above.
Save yourself a fortune and have it repaired, it'll be fine.
If you have 'fully comp'. you could try to persuade the assessor to fork-up for a new one but it would require to be built on a 'bespoke' basis...very expensive.
But I reiterate, just have it repaired... (Who told you it couldn't be repaired?).....................Bill

[Convergence]

My steering became very stiff on my Bavaria 2001 42CC. Upon examination the exposed rudder stock at the top of the rudder as severely damage due to electrolysis. The stock was made of aluminum not stainless steel.  Had a new SS one made from the mold of a Catalina 42.  Far cheaper than the original equipment.

[Salty]

More years ago than I care to remember, a couple of the ships I worked aboard were taken to Skaramanga for periodic refit and where they were put into a floating dry-dock. Skaramanga at the time was a couple of uncomfortable hours drive northwest of Athens in Greece. Outside of the repair yard there were many privately owned workshops where it was possible to get anything, and I repeat ANYTHING made or repaired.

So long as they had an idea of what it should look like they could copy it, repair it, rebuild it, straighten it out, you name it, no matter what the problem, there was a workshop there that could fix the problem, no problem.

I think the yard was one of those owned, at the time by Mr Onassis and one of his floating toys was in there at the time, all gleaming and spotless.

As you are based in Greece, maybe you could contact one of the workshops in that area and ask the question regarding your rudder, because if they can’t fix it they almost certainly would know someone who could. For sure if my boat was in trouble out there, that would be my prime choice of where to start looking for a solution to the problem.