rudder alignment - vibration

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BobCT
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Posts: 1068
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 9:01 pm
Location: New Haven CT

rudder alignment - vibration

Post by BobCT »

I'm getting a vibration which I think is because of my rudder alignment which I changed about a month before I splashed. I found the schematic in one of the posts here and did the measurement from side/side.

The reason I did the alignement was because one was straight and one was toed out just by eyeballing it from the stern. One rudder was replaced so I had to start from scratch. There was no vibration previously but no way to get it back to where it was, the positions are just from memory. There's no play, I re-bushed the tiller arm connections year before last.

Right now, they're very slightly towed "out". I can see the top of my rudders through the gap between swim platform and the transom. Would you increase the tow out or pull them in? It might be trial and error but this is an easy fix if it works.

Is the alignment procedure pretty much the same for all inboard boats? I think the post and schematic I found was for an F36.

Bob

Bob
1988 10m mid cabin
jav
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Posts: 293
Joined: Tue May 10, 2005 11:32 am
Location: MA

Post by jav »

Bob,

going from memory, and this is based on the F series setup, there were 2 factors effecting "toe" . The first was rudder "toe", which I think is what your questioning. This is the angular offset of each rudder to the other when traveling straight. If you have a flutter vibration when going straight only, this is setting to change.

The second is tiller arm toe. On the F series boats, the tiller arms on top of the rudder posts were specific to each side and could be put on wrong. In other words- if you had the rudders out of the boat and mounted the tiller arms, you'd see that the tiller arms were NOT in line with the rudder itself. They were tilted in-board (toe in) relative to the rudders themselves so that as you turn the helm, the inside rudder carves a sharper turning radius than the outboard rudder. If you have issues turning, this may be something to look at.

If I recall correctlly- the spec for the F series was 2 degrees toe in (meaning the leading (forward) edge of the rudders should be closer to each other than the trailing edges. Each rudder was toed in 2 degrees to the angle between BOTH rudders was 4 degrees.

I do not beleive all boats have the same toe specs. Toe will effect stern squat/lift so most boats will have a factory spec that works best for the specific hull configuration. I don't know how the internationals were setup but the deltaconic hull was very different than the f-series so i would expect the toe settigns to be different.
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