[alberg30] Re: wheel steering for A-30

[RABBIT649 at aol.com]

From: RABBIT649 at aol.com

Dear Gordon,
	A mockup is a great Idea.
	Yes, my installation was done as you described, but with NO stuffing box. The
guy just cut the fiberglass tube and clamped on the quadrant, allowing the
rudderpost opening to weep into the boat. It turned out that, under a previous
ownership while it still had a tiller, the rudderpost had been bent in an
accident in which the lower pinion had broken off and then hand straitened
without removal and a makeshift pinion hand made. The tiller worked fine for
many years, but the slight "S" bend left in the rudderpost as it passed thru
the  fiberglass tube that goes from the hull to the cockpit sole made it
almost impossible to remove the rudder, which is necessary to installing a
stuffing box.. It just wouldn't be pulled or pounded out. It took me a whole
summer of lubricating, pounding and pulling down with two cable pullers to get
the rudder out in order to install a stuffing box where the owner just
previous to me had cut the tube. And then I stopped to figure out how to
proceed. In the meantime, got injured at work, went thru rehab and then
decided I had to go back to school in case my injuries got worse in the future
and kept me from doing my present very physical job. So the boat has to go
into a few years of storage while I get my degree.
	One other idea. You could install a custom made RIGHT ANGLE pedestal into the
front wall of the cockpit (the bulk head which forms the rear of the bridge
deck itself). Then you would pulley the cables into the cabin, down and back
under the cockpit sole along the port and starboard sides where the underside
of the cockpit sole meets the inside walls of the sail lockers to a quadrant
on the rudderpost. This would allow you to stand forward ( right on your
bowmar hatch) and steer. And, just incidentally, you could then very easily
make the pedestal tilt port /starboard if you wanted it to, just by making a
slipflange collar at the opening into the bulkhead (with a setscrew knob) and
making sure the cables were close together as they went thru the hole. Then,
as you tilted the wheel, the cables would simple cross over each other left or
right (imagine crossing your fingers) as they continue to slide over each
other (fore and aft at the point at which they go thru the bulkhead) before
they were pulleyed down and then pulleyed port and starboard under the cockpit
sole in order to have the leverage to operate a quadrant. Sounds compicated,
but it's really very simple in principle.
	Got to go to work. Talk to you later.
Regards, 
Paul.
	 

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