[Rhodes22-list] Rudder Rope Clutch

[Leland]

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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