Tag Archives: rudder arm

Managing the Maintenance Part I

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Being on the “hard” at the Norsand Boatyard offers us the opportunity to do a lot of maintenance in addition to the upgrades and repairs.  We have a long list of “to do” items that are perfect to tackle while laid up.

Here is a list of the items we worked on that are mentioned in this blog post:

  • Paint Cross Beam and Martingale
  • Saildrives and Prop Repair Maintenance
  • Rudder Arm 
  • Varnishing
  • See Part II for additional maintenance

Paint Crossbeam and Martingale

The crossbeam is at the front of the boat between the port and starboard hull.  It is an integral part of our boat structure and rigging.

We painted the crossbeam and martingale twelve years ago and the paint was showing its age. 

It is a huge process to remove the cross beam.  We removed the lifelines, dropped the anchor chain, removed the anchor roller and nav lights, secured the mast, removed the forestay and furler, and removed the front part of the trampoline.

Removing the Crossbeam

We had problems removing the the crossbeam. 

Each side of the beam has one bolt that holds the end of the beam to a bracket that is then bolted to the boat.

We thought it would be easier to remove the single bolt on each side rather than removing  the bracket which has 4 bolts.  However, we were wrong.  The two bolts were stuck and had to be cut out.

New plan.  Replace the bolts, drill the holes to make them circular again, and fabricate brass bushings to remove the play.

The crossbeam had its corrosion areas ground out, filled, sanded, primed, sanded, primed, sanded top coat.  

We brought in Rob from RH Precision and his “Adjustable Hand Reamers” to drill out the holes, and to fabricate new bushings.  See bottom left photo (gold colored bushings).

This will make the cross beam much sturdier and easier to remove in the future.

Installation

A one week job took 2.5 weeks.  It was finally time to get the crossbeam and brackets on the boat.  

First we install the bolt bushings on both sides.

Next we install the 1 main bolts that holds the crossbeam to the bracket.  

We then return to the boat to install the other bracket onto the boat.  Of course, tough gel and lots of sika flex were used on everything.

Aaron, the yard manager drove the fork lift expertly allowing for a smooth installation.  No scratches, bumps or bruises on us or the crossbeam.

The result is beautiful

Saildrives & Props

We hired Whangarei Marine Services to do some general maintenance on our saildrives.  They replaced the seals (near the props), changed the gear oil, and cleaned our props. 

We also hired RH Precision to do some work on our props. 

Sugar Shack has 2 props and one spare hub.  One of the hub’s inner splines were really worn down causing some issues.  So, we decided to clean our spare hub and use it instead. 

The problem with the spare hub was that it had some dezincification (it is pinkish) which means it won’t last but 3-4 years. 

That works for us as we plan to repower and replace both the hubs and props before then.

One more thing.  Matt had noticed that the props had a little movement from the axel.  

Rob created a bushing to go around the axel to make it more snug and eliminated some of the play.

Rob made sleeves for the axel which greatly removed the “play.”

By the way, we are replacing all zincs so ignore the shotty ones in the photos below.

Rudder Arm

Do you remember when our port rudder arm (which controls steerage) broke at the access point?  If not, please read “Failures Bring on Frustrating Times“. 

We were able to weld it back together but we always considered that a temporary fix.

We took the rudder arm to our good friend Rob at RH Precision to properly fix it.  Rob crafted a new piece which is twice (if not more) as strong as the original piece. 

Not going to fail us now.  Left piece is new and right piece is old in the photo below.

We evaluated starboard’s rudder arm and it looked solid and strong.

Varnishing

I took a stab at varnishing for the first time two years ago.  See blog post “Varnish, Varnish, Varnish.” It looked amazing for about 1 year.

I could not remove some of the teak pieces off the boat, so they had to be varnished in place.

However, other pieces were easily removed so I could work on them in the shade of the boat.

For some strange reason, the pieces of teak that were removed did not hold up as well as the pieces left in place. 

The pieces left in place are fine whereas the ones that were removed all need to be redone.

We learned that it was possible that some of the pieces failed because water “sat” on them. 

The princess seats had water between the teak and the stainless and the swim steps are in/out of the water a lot.  Hmmm, might be a possibility.

We decided to have Norsand revarnish with Awlwood. The teak is really old (25 years) and really should be replaced.  But we really want to wait until we get to Indonesia to replace all of the teak.

Be sure to read about our brand new solar arch – it is super sexy!

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events.

We finally remove the funky taste and smell from our potable water tanks. See the blog post on the entire process.

We were in the Norsand boat yard working on repairs and maintenance items from November 2025 to January 2026.

Failures Bring on Frustrating Times

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Sugar Shack has had a string of failures over the last few weeks. I cannot remember a time when I’ve been so frustrated.  

Our boat has been and continues to be an amazing vessel. 

She has safely transported us over 50,000nm across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  She is our home, our yacht, our love and I would not trade her for anything else.  We love our Catana!

However, with anything over 24 years old you have failures.  

All of this happened over the course of 2 weeks in route to Fiji from the Marshall Islands.

Double Steering Failure

As you might recall, we had a “A Double Steering Failure” when we lost our starboard steering gear box and our port rudder arm.  This rendered our starboard helm un-steerable and our port helm without a rudder. 

Makes steering a challenge, but still doable with auto pilot using the port steering gear box and the starboard rudder.

Problem: ​Starboard Steering Gear Box failed. 

Solution: We ordered new bearings and seals from Germany for both port and starboard.  They’re being sent to Fiji where we will do repairs.

Problem: Port Rudder Arm failed. 

Solution: The good news is it broke at the attachment point.  We found the one man who has the tools to weld stainless and he fixed our rudder arm! We need to weld the two pieces together at the exact correct length to reinstall the rudder arm.

Matt and I searched for a stainless welder all over Funafuti over 3 days.  We finally found the one man who has the tools and expertise.  He tack welded the two pieces together, then did some grinding, then finished the welding.  We are back in business with two rudders!

A Massive Disappointment

Port Engine Failure

Problem: Our port engine water pump had a slow leak.  We had been watching it and were prepared to replace it once we got to Fiji. However, the leak got progressively worse.  So, Matt decided to replace it in Tuvalu.

The water pump is located in front of the engine making it a challenge to access. Matt has to lean over the engine, upside down to access the pump. Many pieces and parts have to be removed including the timing belt.

Problem #2: As Matt was removing the timing belt it ripped!  Oh for the love of God!  The engine can’t run at all without a timing belt!  This is bad, very bad!

Solution: The water pump was installed, but there is nothing we can do about the timing belt.  We ordered (2) new timing belts (one for both engines) from the UK to be delivered to Fiji where we will do repairs.

More Annoying Issues

Problem:  As Matt was removing pieces from the engine to get to the water pump one of his most used sockets fell into the water.  We are in 14m depth (40′).  

We got the dive gear out and both pressure gauges had water ingress and were not readable. 

Solution:  Matt used the dive gear anyway and within 4 minutes found the socket!  Yeah.

Problem: The furler is starting to fail and is leaking.  It is still working, but we have to be gentle when using the genoa.

Solution: We ordered new bearings and seals to be sent to Fiji where we will do repairs.

Problem: The washdown pump failed.  We use this pump to hose off the boat and clean the ground tackle (with both fresh and salt water).

Solution:  Matt thought we could just take it a part, clean it and get it working.  But this 13 year old pump was done.  We will have to buy a new one.

Summary

 
We have one engine and one rudder forcing us to run between helm stations. And somehow make it to Fiji to do the repairs.
 
Good news:  
  • We can steer from the Port helm and run back to starboard to use the throttles
  • We found a stainless welder in Tuvalu (the 2nd smallest country in the world). We now have use of both rudders
  • The port engine NEW water pump is installed
  • The engine was off when the timing belt failed.
    • Would have been catastrophic if it failed with the engine on.
  • We found the socket in 14m of silty water.  New octopi will be purchased in the future
  • Matt thinks he can take the washdown pump apart, clean it, service it and get it working without a replacement.  
  • The furler still works but we have to be gentle using it.  

Trying our best to see the silver lining. We are truly blessed and know that “life happens.”  It’s just hard when it happens all at one time.

We find some joy and charm in Tuvalu – check out our last blog post.

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual events.  The failures occurred between mid to end of March 2025.

A Double Steering Failure

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Matt and I were enjoying a lovely sail from the Marshall Islands to Kiribati.  About 55 hours into our 63 hour passage we noticed an issue with our starboard steering.  Yikes!  Our engine throttles are on starboard so we use starboard as our main helm and port as a “back up.”

The good news is that auto pilot is working ok and the port steering is working ok.  We were able to safely navigate through the Kiribati pass to the anchorage.  Matt jumped in the hole as soon as the engine cooled off.

What Type of Steering is on Sugar Shack

There are multiple types of steering on yachts: mechanical, hydraulic, electric, and electric hydraulic.  We have mechanical on our boat.

How does mechanical steering work?

The mechanical system is usually made up of a Rack-And-Pinion or Worm-And-Sector steering gear that is physically connected to the helm. When the steering wheel is rotated, this mechanical system also turns. These mechanical systems, in turn, drive a pitman arm that physically turns the wheels of the boat.

Which is the same as “Christine speak”

When you turn the starboard wheel it turns the “Steering Gear Box”. The steering gear box then turns the “Arm” which is also connected to the port steering box.  That in turn rotates our port and starboard “Rudder Arms” which turns the rudders which turns the boat.  It works the opposite way as well when you turn the port helm it turns the starboard steering.

I am sure there are more technical terms for this system, but hopefully I described it well enough for you to follow along.

What Happened?

Steering Gear Box:  We are not 100% sure what happened to the starboard steering box.  It could be age and regular wear and tear.  It also could be something else???  We tie off the wheel while at anchor to reduce movement of the boat.  Could this have been a problem??

Matt disengaged the steering box after a lot of struggle.  It is super heavy and located in an awkward position.

What we discovered was the following:

  • Water appears to have dripped from the either the compass or a seam into the gear box.  We will have to reseal the helm.
  • The bearings were shot and the balls were floating around
  • A lot of gunk was in and around the gears
  • One section of the gears was stripped

Temporary Fix

There is nothing we can do in Kiribati (where we are now) or Tuvalu (where we are going next).  But we can disconnect the starboard steering box so that we don’t do any more damage by using the port equipment.

Matt ordered (8) new bearings and (4) new seals.  It will take approximately 6-8 weeks to get to us from Germany.

What Else Happened?

A few days into our passage from Kiribati to Tuvalu we discovered another problem.  The wind had dropped to 5kts so we decided to drop the sails and motor.  Matt jumped in the engine room and  found a major problem.  The port rudder arm (tie rod) was broken at the attachment point.

You have got to be kidding!!!

We don’t know what happened, but the only way to fix it is to weld the stainless back together.  Obviously we can’t do that while underway.  Matt lashed the arm down to prevent further damage.

How Are We Able to Steer?

Auto pilot is located on the starboard helm.  He has been running great!  Auto turns the port gear box which turns the arm connecting the starboard and port helms.  The arm then turns the starboard tie rod / rudder arm which turns the starboard rudder.

Basically bypassing the two broken parts on both starboard and port.  Thank goodness for redundancy on a catamaran!

Repairs

There is not much we can do until we get to Savusavu, Fiji.  So, we are being super gentle with the boat and her steering.  Good news we have very light winds and moderate seas so there is not a lot of pressure on Auto Pilot or the rudders.

Stay tuned for repairs…

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events.  We were under passage from the Marshall Islands to Kiribati, then Tuvalu, and then Fiji in mid to late April.

Be sure to read the good news about this passage here.