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Duncs

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Stand on deck.

Pull it up, put it in the position that it normally is.

Drop it into the cup  repeat till you get it right.

 

If you fail, a torch in a plastic bag down the weed hatch, locate the cup and get someone to guide the rudder into it.

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1 minute ago, Duncs said:

I rang hire company they told me to lift and juggle about, been doing that for ages !

If its a hire boat tell em to get their arses out and sort it!!!!!

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3 minutes ago, Duncs said:

I rang hire company they told me to lift and juggle about, been doing that for ages !

 

Such are the dangers of diagnosing stuff yourself. 

 

With hindsight would have been better to tell them the rudder has broken and won't steer, and feign ignorance at any attempt to tell you how to fix it yourself. 

 

Best now to call them back and tell them you've given it your best shot and can't do it, so its breakdown and they need to come and fix it if they wan't their boat back.

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Just now, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Such are the dangers of diagnosing stuff yourself. 

 

With hindsight would have been better to tell them the rudder has broken and won't steer, and feign ignorance at any attempt to tell you how to fix it yourself. 

 

Best now to call them back and tell them you've given it your best shot and can't do it, so its breakdown and they need to come and fix it if they wan't their boat back.

Or even suggest that following their advice you have put your back out and can hardly move

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If you can't lift it place the boats stern under an over bridge with railings. slip a rope around a bridge projectile and back around tiller inline with the top bearing. and tie off both ends of the rope together. Place a stick between the ropes and keep twisting ''Spanish windlass style'' until the rudder assembly lifts up a bit, which it will. Get someone to hold the stick while you fiddle about reclocating the stock in the cup whilst they lower it gently by undoing the stick. If you don't tie off the stick when under twist tension or get someone to control it it can whirl around and around at very high speed and with tremendousely great velocity wounding, lascerating or killing anything in its whirling path.

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Duncs 1st Post :

 

Hi all, I am a first timer boater (if that’s the correct terminology), myself and a group of friends, 2 males and 3 females, mainly retired have booked a Narrowboat for the first week in June. We have hired from Norbury Wharf and our destination is Kinver. After spending a few hours trying to plan our trip, I have identified the following potential night time stops, Navigation Inn Gnosall, Wagon and Horses Wombourne, The Vine Kinver, Round Oak Wombourne, The Bridge Brewood and then last night at the Norbury Junction, don’t really want to travel on the last day as the boat has to be back for 09.30 am.

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The conventional way to fit a rudder into the skeg cup involves two people. First of all thread a stout cord through the hole at the back of the rudder top. The stronger of the two people holds this chord, whilst the other person holds the top of the swans neck, the first person pulls the chord upwards with sufficient strength to raise the rudder off the skeg whilst the second person moves the swans neck so that the rudder appears to be correctly aligned. The chord is then gently lowered in the hope that the pin at the bottom of the rudder drops into the skeg cup. This may take several attempts, but it should  work. I have deployed this method successfully on a large Woolwich working boat, so it should be easier with a modern recreational boat.

 

 

Edited by David Schweizer
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12 minutes ago, David Schweizer said:

This may take several attempts, but it should  work. I have deployed this method successfully on a large Woolwich working boat, so it should be easier with a modern recreational boat.

There was a thread a couple of weeks ago where the boater had the same problem and couldn't get 'it back in'.

 

After jumping in and plodging-about he found that there was no cup - it had broken off.

The chance of getting the rudder re-fitted was zero.

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32 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

There was a thread a couple of weeks ago where the boater had the same problem and couldn't get 'it back in'.

 

After jumping in and plodging-about he found that there was no cup - it had broken off.

The chance of getting the rudder re-fitted was zero.

I was going top suggest checking whether the skeg cup was still in place, but felt it was probably unlikely in what I assume to be a fairly new boat. Getting into the water is one solution, but it may be worth feeling about through the weed hatch with a long stick.

 

 

Edited by David Schweizer
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The easyness of lifting the rudder assembly depends on whether it has a ball race unit on the top or just a plain bearing. A plain bearing should lift up and down easily but if a ball race it'll almost certainly be partially seized up or very stiff where the stock passes through it and if it has been pushed up it will probably need force to push it down again with a heavy hammer on a lump of wood.

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1 hour ago, tree monkey said:

Or even suggest that following their advice you have put your back out and can hardly move

 

I'd suggest the OP is careful with suggestions like that. The hire company might attempt to put it back in, while they are doing the rudder stock. ?

 

 

 

Edited by Mike the Boilerman
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11 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

For this, I award you Word Of The Day prize.

 

 

Why thank you kind Sir, but I claim no originality - it is even in the Collins Dictionary and a word in common usage.

 

We first hired a NB about 45-50 years ago and took an American friend with us - he unfortunately lost his glasses in the cut, so it was off with the shoes and socks and 'sploging about' with bare feet until we found them.

 

Origin of Plodge

Late 18th century; earliest use found in Francis Grose (d. 1791), antiquary. Probably an imitative alteration of plod, perhaps after e.g. plunge, trudge.

 

plodge in British

(plɒdʒ ) Northeast England dialect
 
verb
1. (intransitive)
to wade in water,
noun
2. 
the act of wading
 
Edited by Alan de Enfield
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1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

There was a thread a couple of weeks ago where the boater had the same problem and couldn't get 'it back in'.

 

After jumping in and plodging-about he found that there was no cup - it had broken off.

The chance of getting the rudder re-fitted was zero.

That was me with Dotterel. In the dry dock tomorrow. I will post photos. 

 

Cheers Graham

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2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Duncs 1st Post :

 

Hi all, I am a first timer boater (if that’s the correct terminology), myself and a group of friends, 2 males and 3 females, mainly retired have booked a Narrowboat for the first week in June. We have hired from Norbury Wharf and our destination is Kinver. After spending a few hours trying to plan our trip, I have identified the following potential night time stops, Navigation Inn Gnosall, Wagon and Horses Wombourne, The Vine Kinver, Round Oak Wombourne, The Bridge Brewood and then last night at the Norbury Junction, don’t really want to travel on the last day as the boat has to be back for 09.30 am.

The vine at Kinver is pretty run down or was so better to walk into the village. Rather than spend last night at Norbury travel north a further hour and stop at the Anchor , great canal side pub , goodfor your last night bt no food 

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11 minutes ago, Tuscan said:

The vine at Kinver is pretty run down or was so better to walk into the village. Rather than spend last night at Norbury travel north a further hour and stop at the Anchor , great canal side pub , goodfor your last night bt no food 

 

Last time I was in there, they had a basket of white bread cheese sarnies on the bar, sweating away individually wrapped up in clingfilm....

 

 

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Apart from the plodging and the dodgy sarnies at the Vine, this very much seems an issue for the hire company to front up and sort out.  I'd suggest if a hirer caused damage to their boat whilst carrying out work on it, most hire companies would be quick to seek compensation. It sounds a pretty poor show to me that the company involved did not attend this breakdown reasonably promptly.

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I can't believe the hire company actually encouraged the op to sort out the problem themselves. 

Something very simple maybe, but in this case , a visit to the boat was essential.

As was said earlier, what if the op put their back out trying to put the rudder back in. Poor show from the hire company. 

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I was once following a Canaltime boat down Trentham lock when the hirer cilled it briefly and the rudder came out of the cup. He managed to get as far as the visitor moorings below at Wedgwood. I had several goes at putting it back in using the techniques discussed here but concluded that the skeg had been pushed up so that it wasn’t possible. The hirer rang the yard and was told to pull the stock up through the top bearing as far as he could, then wrap mooring line round it below the swan neck collar to hold it there.

 

Seemed to work but I was surprised the yard didn’t come out to him to satisfy themselves that our account was correct.

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