Emergency rudder opening full of water

[wcconway]

While cleaning the boat this weekend, we opened up the locking disk below the helmsman's seat that seals off the emergency rudder/tiller shaft and the shaft was full of water. Is this normal?

[Hans Grasman]

Connie
I was summarizing my boat last week and opened the emergency tiller cover and ...... yes it was filled to the top with water.
We did have a big rain storm last week.
Let us hope somebody reacts to our question as to whether this is a problem or something to live with.

[russp]

Hi All,
Without claiming any expertise, seems to me that water could only come from above through the threads of the metal cover. Too far above water level for it to come upwards. All components are designed to be around water so just fact of water in there shouldn't necessarily be of concern. Last time I opened ours there was water in there which I dried out, put grease around the threads of the metal cover to seal it better and am hoping that no more water has gone in since.

Personally wouldn't be too worried and you should be able to seal the cover to stop water ingress from the cockpit.

Regards
Russ Peel
Avalon #150

[AynB]

My two cents here. Save yourself and your next mechanic a bit of grief and take a gentle file to the lower edge of the threads, those underneath the deck, and file off the VERY SHARP AND ROUGH edges. When we had to drop the rudder while on the hard, both of the mechanics and I cut our knuckles up - one pretty bad slice. As for water in the pit - it has no where to go, unless you drill a hole ( DON'T ) to allow it to drip into the after berth. The grease trick or even a light coating of lanolin ( my preference ) or telflon tape should be just the ticket.
Al

[roostermt]

I know this is an old thread but need a bit of help.

In the Bahamas some huge squalls with lots of rain. Getting a bit of water in the Trans shaft area after rain. Appears it might be from the Plastic Emergency Tiller hatch. It has lots of water and I see water dripping down around the screws under the deck and a bit of water pooling on the black cable pully.

O ring looks ok although a bit flat. Any idea where I can source a new oring. I have someone coming out in a few weeks.

Rooster

[TBOT422]

Try http://www.theoringstore.com/

However, another thing to look at are the transom hatches and the cockpit lockers particularly those on the starboard side and the transom shower mount. We have found that in a hard rain or when washing, water can enter at any of these locations and drain to the hull beneath the aft berth and flow to the area beneath the prop shaft and PSS seal.

[nybor]

Hi. My o-ring looked bad as well, so I bought a piece of neoprene o-ring material and made my own. It is very easy to do. You use super glue to connect the two ends, but rather than cutting the two vertically, you overlap them and cut at a 45 degree angle. That provides more surface area for the glue to contact.

Have done hundreds of these in the past and work great.

dave

[Monty]

the existing posts on this topic are old ('11-'18) but last week I found the same problem on hull 418....lots of water in compartment and dripping down through the through bolts onto the large black quadrant wheel. I have an email into Warren at Catalina to see if the bolts where mounted to hold water or allow water to drip through. My focus is on stopping the water from coming in but also want to know about the bolts. Interesting to note how off center the opening and emergency rudder fitting is.

Anyone with new information on this issue would be welcomed to speak up. Steve Montgomery #418

[reinhardschumann]

Yes we have this problem too, and it caused the bearing to squeak. I think the water gets in when it rains, through the em. tiller access. There is a spline type seal in there but it has a gap where the water can get through. We positioned the seal at the aft end of the access port and it seems to be better now. I don't think the leakage is a problem if the bearing is not making noise. We put some silicone lube in there with warm water. Not sure if that helped but the noise problem was gone after 6 months on dry storage.

The problem started after contractor dropped the rudder to replace the lower bearing. (They also re-installed the outer fiberglass access panel 90 degrees off! The access port is not centered!)