Rudder Bearing and some armchair analysis before i pull the boat.
My first questions is: Is the Rudder bearing on the front page still available for purchase.
And here's what happened: Two weeks ago I had a pretty soft grounding into some mud, and I was pulled out from the stern by a passer by. When the guy pulled me out he went a little faster than I would have liked and in reverse the rudder went pretty hard to the side with a lot of pressure, just for a couple of seconds. Once we got under way (it was pretty late at night) we motored home a mile and the rudder felt oddly light in my hand. It was a long night and we buttoned her up. Yesterday, I took the boat out to see how it felt before the wednesday races and it still feels very light in my hand (like there is not as much rudder as there used to be) but mainly there is now play in the tiller and to travel in a straight line the tiller needs to be off center by 20 degrees or so. I am going to pull the boat but I am hoping that its really that the tiller bearing got stripped and the rudder post is just unaligned. Any comments appreciated. Thanks all.
