[Public-List] A rudder question

[J Bergquist]

Folks,

I spoke with Owen Zeimer yesterday who is a new Alberg owner. He is from
Australia (I think) but lives in the UK (again, I think), and his boat is on
the Chesapeake. He's busy doing some initial-owner maintenance/upgrade type
stuff and he has been talking to me about replacing his motor, which is how
I know him.

Yesterday he called me and asked a rudder question I did not know the answer
to. He's not able to post on the list right now, so I told him I would ask
the question to the list on his behalf.

Owen has a rudder which has a cutout aperture. His initial question was for
those of us who have apertures in their rudders (I am not in that group as
my rudder has no aperture), is there some structural member which spans the
rudder from the tiller connection all the way to the bottom pintle? I am not
sure whether his rudder is original or rebuilt and what vintage or hull #
his boat is.

As a secondary question, his problem is that in way of the aperture there is
apparently a crack in the rudder such that if he hangs on it, the rudder
flexes significantly in way of this crack. He is concerned about the
rudder's structural integrity and wonders if anybody has done a repair for a
problem of this type. As a follow-on to this, has anybody ever built a new
rudder? I thought I read somewhere a web page about rebuilding an Alberg
rudder, but I can't remember where and was unable to find it again. George,
if htere is a page about this could you send a link?

Owen is very appreciative of any suggestions list readers may have on this
subject.

Thanks!

J Bergquist