I would start looking under cover that is on the deck. The rudder hangs from a 1/2" bolt and it rotates on a ring. This ring may be broken or worn out. 1" play is too much. I would be curious what you find.

You should also look behind the rectangular access cover on the bulkhead in the aft cabin. You will see the rudder post and the attached steering quadrant.

I, too, am very interested in what you find.

Holy crap! You mean at this point just the friction of the steering quadrant is all that is preventing the rudder from falling off? If so, we should all be crawling back in the lazarette and taking a look at glasswork for the top bearing.

Too bad, Enrique. At least you got Gerry involved and I surely hope and expect that he'll do his best to figure out a good repair.

Best of luck to you and thanks for sharing your problem with us.

[QUOTE=Chachere;20266]Some of us have never had the fortune of having the backing of wenches....[/QUOTE]

Glad you went where I had declined to go. :D

Wondering if you have heard from Catalina. I have the same issue with quadrant. The additional play has cracked the rudder post. Picture posted looks exactly like mine.

Thanks for the pics. surprised there hasn't been a bulletin on this. You are at least the third boat with this issue. Still thinking on the best fix for mine.

Is this something where we should be adding starboard or SS plates above and below, bolted together, to preclude this failure?

It can not hurt actually. I did something different about 5 years ago. I added a upper bearing to that area so my lower tube would not get washed out as many do. It gives the rudder post 2 contact points and helps relive the pressure off the lower tube.

Would someone please explain to me just how the rudder shaft is supported and what breaks? I'm having a bit of difficulty seeing the whole picture from the pics. My boat is a year 2000. It is out of the water 6 months for the winter.
Thanks,
Wally

Wally I will see if this helps you. In your cockpit you should have a stainless round plate just behind your wheel on the cockpit floor. That is the access plate for your rudder post. You unscrew that plate and you will see the top of your rudder post plus a collar around the post and a bolt holding that collar on. What that collar sets on is what has been breaking on other boats. Th area under that collar is about 1/2" thick. That is what holds the rudder up and from dropping down till the quadrant hits your rudder post. How these are breaking has got me wondering. I beefed mine up years ago just for extra support to the rudder system. I hope this helps a bit.

Hi Randy,
I now understand how it's supported, but what I can't under distand is why this collar is riding on a plate that's adhered UNDER the support "platform". Do I have this right? If so, why on earth would an engineer place the weight of the rudder on something that is trying to peel away???
How did you beef up yours? Did this involve dropping the rudder?
Thanks Randy!
Wally

I just spent the weekend fixing mine. Loosened steering cables, Moved the post up about 1/2 inch then shimmed the quadrant so the rudder would not drop down again . Used 610 to reattach delaminated piece. Reinforced by making a starboard collar that fits over the post from the top. Used 610 to attach it to the fiberglass.
Had to redrill the bolt hole in the fiberglass collar that holds the post.

[QUOTE=sea dragon;20482]I just spent the weekend fixing mine. Loosened steering cables, Moved the post up about 1/2 inch then shimmed the quadrant so the rudder would not drop down again . Used 610 to reattach delaminated piece. Reinforced by making a starboard collar that fits over the post from the top. Used 610 to attach it to the fiberglass.
Had to redrill the bolt hole in the fiberglass collar that holds the post.[/QUOTE]

Thanks,
So basically, you transferred the load to the new plate on top of the "floor"? I guess the original plate you re-glued with 6-10 is now acting as a side-to-side alignment plate?
Thanks again.
Wally

lossened the chain to position everything properly. centered the post around the starboard plate which made the fibeberglass collar that sits on the starboard plate higher than the original holes in the piece. redrilled the collar to get the bolt through collar then the original holes in the rudder post.

the post does not have side to side action now. I have not put any real load on the fix yet. As soon as the weather breaks here, we will be sailing.

Hello,

I have the same problem with my Catalina 36 mk1 and will start opening hatches and stuff at the back to see what is wrong. Has anyone got some pictures of what the repair looks like? Thing  is that the description a few people gave on this forum is hard to understand when you are Dutch like myself. Also an iPhone which corrects everything I type into proper dutch here does not help here to exchange. A few photos would help a great deal.

kind regards,

Floris

Note that while the SS bolt through the fiberglass collar and through the SS rudder post holds the rudder at the correct height, the steering quadrant will prevent the rudder from dropping down more than about 2 inches.  You don't want to be steering too much with the rudder dropped down, however, as the quadrant is now in contact with brass compression fitting at the top of the thru-hull (with packing inside just like the prop shaft gland) that keeps the water out and it is then at the wrong angle for the steering cables.  They'd likely be cutting into the cosmetic fiberglass box on the underside of the cockpit sole.  This drop would also put more pressure on the steering cables and could screw up your entire steering system if not fixed ASAP.