short ruder for Hansa 370e

I have an electric welding machine in my workshop, and I have even welded MIG and TIG. I am not an electro engineer or a welder. My son in law even calls my weldings for "seagull-droppings".

Being an older sailor I may be more sceptic than most, and I am extremely cautious about information from unknown sources on the internet.

The fairly new member PilotHuski is telling a story about TIG welding a rudder stock with deep pitting from electrolysis. I am a little sceptic about that. Any welding will have an uneven surface, and the stock will then need to be machined down to a diameter which fit in the Torlon bearing. Furthermore, it is my experience, that a welded add-on to a stock/axle will make the subject weaker than it was before the welding, because the melted alloy will make a frontier zone even deeper into the stock. This is just my humble opinion, and even if you myhansers have tolerated my posts for almost 17 years, you don´t really know me from Adam, right?

The solution to this must be to contact Jefa Denmark, the manufacturer of the rudder, so this I did.

Thor from Jefa sent me an email, where he answered my technical questions.

He points out, that a welding will result in an uneven oval finish and thereby problems with the bearings. And electrolysis on the surface will have microscopic channels towards the center of the rudder-stock, so the strenght of the stock will be weakened whether you have welded it or not.

He states: "The best solution (if electrolysis is not too bad) is to mount a "sleeve" (over the damaged area) and get a new (oversize) bearing which fit the sleeve". (Sold by Jefa).

This sounds quite intelligent to me. If you hide the corrosion inside a watertight sleeve, any new corrosion will be on the outside of the sleeve. By the way, Thor recommends to read about electrolysis on the Jefa homepage.

I have a little corrosion on my rudderstock as well. Back in 2006 I did not know that antifouling in a circle around the rudderstock must be free of copper! Nowadays I even have a small anode connected to the system. Read more about this on Jefa homepage.

Jefa also have a pricelist. A RUD40 standard for H370 and H400 cost about €3800 +VAT (Outside EU no VAT).

Transportation costs starts at € 200. Rudder is easy to change. Your grandmother could do it! You just need to dig a hole under the boat so you can drop it. It weighs like 60 kg.

I watched the TV the other day. A gullible dane had paid for woodpellets in Belgium to an amount of something like €100.000. (For earning money by wholesale). What he recieved was a long nose, (a "Gonzo" in danish),  because he was victim of an internet scam. Be careful out there!

Cook the Captain

 

Hi Owen

Your pictures are very educating. I see that you have renewed the sealing around the rudderstock. I have done the same, and I strongly advice other Hanse owners to do that. My sealing started to detoriate after some 10-12 years, and water may seep into the rudder if it is not fixed.

In my post above I mention antifouling with copper. Both on the hull and on the rudder there need to be a separating zone between the aluminium and the copper paint. On my boat I have used Hammerite metal paint (fibreglass reinforced paint) for this.

I mention it again, because there may be a few Hanse owners out there who are ignorant of this.

So remember: NO COPPERPAINT NEAR OR ON ALUMINIUM PARTS!

:Kjeld

https://www.jefa.com/electro-f.htm

If the damage to the rudderstock is limited, you should read Owens post (above) about the sleeve available.

:Kjeld