Piston Separates From Rudder

[Barry Cohen]

So YOLO and crew left Lynn at 🙂00 am yesterday and arrived 5 hours later in Onset Harbor, Cape Cod. The cruise was delightful and uneventful, although the canal was a little lumpy.

We began our approach to the Point Independence Yacht Club fuel dock to top off, and lo and behold: no f--king steering! Luckily, I had throttle and the thrusters were able to get me over to a mooring. Steve, the Dockmaster at the PIYC came out to us and he looked over the situation. The piston had totally backed out the the coupling that holds it to the rudder. WTF!!! Luckily, Steve was able to get into the small space next to the propane locker and put everything back together.

Moral of the story: every once in awhile, check the connection from the piston to the rudder. Loosing your steering as you are approaching a fuel dock surrounded by big and expensive boats is not a fun feeling.

 

[knotflying]

Looks like you were in the right place at the right time. Thanks for the heads up and it just reinforces the fact that we need to periodically check all connections on a regular basis.

 

[Brian B]

I checked mine today and found the locking nut was loose, I could turn it by hand.
Thanks for the heads up.

 

[baz]

I checked mine today and found the locking nut was loose, I could turn it by hand.
Thanks for the heads up.

So much for a 'locking nut' not locking. :roll: Maybe replacing that locking nut would be a wise thing to do. 😉

 

[baz]

I checked mine today and found the locking nut was loose, I could turn it by hand.
Thanks for the heads up.

On our R-25 the locking nut is on the underside. The bolt head is on top and passes through the second hole on the rudder arm with the locking nut holding the bolt in place.

When you say yours (your locking nut) was loose, was the nut actually coming off the threads with the nylon locking material simply not engaging the metal bolt's threads ?

From what I see the bolt cannot be tightened up too much as that would bind the piston's end rod to the rudder arm and inhibit rotation or put unnecessary load on the piston's operation.

I've read in the past here that the bolt can fracture so having a spare bolt is something to have in the boat's toolkit as well.