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Lotus rudder


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Anyone had any experience with Lotus 9.2 rudder removal?

Mine is out of alignment, thanks to a previous boat builder, and has worn quite quickly.

I need to remove it and get the gudgeons done and then realign it.

I know you have to cut away the blocks above each gudgeon in order to lift the rudder off, , but any advice on how to realign the thing would be appreciated.

Looks a bit tricky to me. I've even contemplated modifying it to only 2 gudgeons.

Thanks in anticipation.

alibaba

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I'm interested in this topic too. Anyone have advice on removing the rudder on a Lotus 9.2? There was an owner in Nelson 4-5 years ago who replaced his with a skeg-less blade style model of his own design. I am mostly wondering if the skeg and rubber assembly can be removed from the hull slot as one piece by removing the skeg through removing the bolts inside in the back transom, or were they normally glued/glassed in as well, meaning it would be much easier to just remove the rudder and leave skeg well enough alone. Thank you in advance for suggestions.

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In the end, I modified[ don't tell Wrighty] the rudder assembly, partly because we couldn't get the three pins/gudgeons to line up, and it was only going to wear again.

I removed the bottom part of the skeg so that there were just two. To my delight, the boat then turned on a sixpence, much better than the slow laboured turn previously.

I think the water flow over the skeg was interfering with the lift from the rudder blade and partly stalling it.

From the point of view of rudder removal, you probably need to remove the rudder at some stage anyway in order to replace the bearings. I don't know how your boat was put together, but mine had large pins on the skeg, and hoops on the rudder. When the rudder was dropped onto the pins, there was a piece of wood over each which was screwed in and sealed with mastic or some such to fill the gap so the rudder could not lift off.

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9 hours ago, alibaba said:

From the point of view of rudder removal, you probably need to remove the rudder at some stage anyway in order to replace the bearings.

The bearings are my main reason for removal. There has always been a small amount of movement since I bought Taranto in 2007, and its slowly got worse, I think mostly through solo sailing and lots of tillerpilot usage that seems to work a notch into them. Do you have any photos of your rudder workings? You could email them to support@taranto.nz, or post here of course. Seeing is believing. I'm not so keen to change the setup/shape for performance, just renew the rudder so its good for another 40 years. I have no idea how stuff looks under the years of paint and antifoul etc. The other Nelson 9.2 owner I mentioned earlier wanted to sell me new pintles and gudgeons that he paid thousands for, before he decided to make his 'better' (and from your experience it clearly can). I want to remove them and repair if possible with plastic style teflon bushes somehow. Asking here is about preparing for unforeseen difficulties. Cheers

rudder.jpg

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Unfortunately I didn't take photos at the time. However, your rudder looks exactly like mine did. When I removed the rudder the pins and the sockets were bronze. I bushed the pins with plastic rings, but I can't remember now where they came from. The bushing was done by Kevin Johnson boatbuilders, and he may well still remember doing it. There are various modern composites that you can use I think. Kevin has now retired from his Devonport workshop but is still working. His contact email is kjboat@xtra.co.nz which is still active I think

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Epic. That is such a relief, so they are built to be rebushed :-) Of course they are! Silly me. I can put my mind to all the other failings, smoothing out the bottom, building a sugarscoop on the stern, attaching a windvane, preventing the forehatch leaking, new sails, so many things to work on. Many thanks.

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Taranto, I enjoyed watching your movies of the circumnavigation of the south island and cruising Stewart island and Fiordland. You have done some miles in that boat well done.

I owned an Alan wright marauder 8.4 for a while. Very similar to the lotus 9.2. I cut the whole back end of it out, transformed the boat and gained so much more space. I left the rudder on the transom  but had to cut it down and add a bit of carbon to stiffen it all up. I also rebushed the gudgeons with acetal tophat style bushes so the top acted like a washer. I have some photos somewhere. 

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Thank You booboo! Yeah covid has thrown an enormous spanner in the works re any sailing plans, been stuck in Italy for over a couple of years now. Pretty disappointed to say the least with Cindy's treatment of 'us other million' left outside, but wont pollute these pages with that diatribe. I finally won a ticket in the MIQ lotto so heading back in Feb! Making some outrageous plans already hahaha, not least a ton of upkeep on this fabulous yacht. Thanks for your kind words.

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