I did some damage to the rudder assembly on my 2001 Bav 40 Ocean yesterday; trying to unfoul the auto prop from a pesky bit of, which I later found the shredded remains, plastic bag. The theory of throttling forward and then reverse was sound but my execution was too aggressive in reverse - the wheel slid through my fingers as the rudder slammed against the stud stop limit. Thank you in advance for not pointing out the perils of manoeuvring too fast in reverse... Before my manoeuvre the wheel steering was fully functional without any binding throughout the full range of control.
Interior and underwater inspections revealed no leaks, fwd top of rudder spade close to hull but not touching, lower bearing housing seems approximately 5mm askew on stud side and I can see glimpses of what appears to be brass housing with nothing showing on port side of the housing, and steering to port and stbd is stiff but fully functional, steering quadrant centre mark is displaced approximately 10-degrees and pedestal wheel centremark lashing is now displaced 90-degrees, which yields about 10-degrees rudder deflection on the rudder displacement instrument. There is now about a 20-degree arc of sloppiness at the wheel.
It would appear either the lower bearing housing's askewness is causing binding whilst manipulating the wheel or the rudder post is slightly bent. In either case, she'll be going onto the hard after the holidays for repairs.
In the meantime, I've searched this and other forums and tried googling for a rudder post schematic without any success. I'd imagine Bavaria used similar assemblies on the 38-foot plus models in 2001, so I'd be happy with any of those. I've tried the Bav Distributer in SYD but since it's holidays... well - you know.
Would anyone have the elusive rudder schematic they would upload for me or kindly point me to a link that might have one?
Thanks and Cheers,
Ed
