Steering
December 2008. Wheel steering
I removed the added Edson pedestal wheel type of steering and went back to a tiller. The tiller stainless fitting needs to be straigtened though or replaced. I am also planning on using an Raymarine SPX-5 Plus autopilot.
March 2009. Tiller steering
I asked Niemiec Marine to make a new tiller fitting from heavier than original stainless steel. They also found that the key on the rudder post for the tiller-end fitting was not mid-ship meaning the tiller was off to port by about 10° when the rudder is mid-ship. Fixing it would have been expensive. Oh well, I just need to get used to it. At least, my tiller is now not going to be bent again.
I had to say that Chris made the beautiful tiller fitting. Thanks Chris!
April 2009. Autopilot
The autopilot is supposed to be attached to the tiller 18" off the center of the rudder post. If not the crooked tiller, the autopilot would rest right on the end of the coaming. It should be mounted 24.5" from the tiller. Now I have to make an extension to coaming in a form of a stainless plate.
April 2011. Piscadera Bay, Curacao
Rudder Bottom Shoe Hinge Repair
Recently I noticed that when I turn the tiller, the rudder make some noise. I put on my mask, snorkel and fins and found that the bottom hinge had worn out. Later I researched that this was a known common problem for most Monsuns of that age. One guy even lost his rudder because he neglected the problem.
The repair is rather simple. I didn't even need to take off the rudder, just the bottom shoe hinges. The mechanic drilled out a bigger hole in the shoe and put in a bronze bushing. After that I installed the hinges back using bolts and nuts instead of the original stainless rivets.
At the same time, I completely removed all the polyester putty around all the hinges because it does not stick to bronze, water gets in and the putty simply falls off. This was the poor job of Niemiec Marine. It only last for one month. I knew that the West System epoxy was not going to adhere to bronze either but I removed the gelcoat around the hinges too in a hope that the epoxy would bind very well to the bare fiberglass and therefore, is not going to fall off.
I used various additives for the epoxy that I had from high density filler to collodial silica. I also used figerglass tape and loose fiberglass mat to reduce the amount of epoxy and to make it also stronger.
I spent about half a day filling all the gaps around hinges and another half grinding, sanding and filling again. Next day the rudder was painted as part of the new antifouling job. See Painting.