Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

The installation process is quite straightforward

It's the execution that was the challenge. At least for a hack like me. I'm sure that there a skilled Pro would be much quicker at figuring things out and getting them done but it was surprising how challenging the install turned out to be. For example: the tiller arm had to be fitted to the rudder stock at the correct height and particular offset angle to allow room for my drive unit to fit in the space available. It needed to be pinned in place and that required a 10mm hole drilled in some rather tough stainless. Crawl down the cockpit locker, squeeze through a hatch (ignore the stringer jammed in your ribs!), shimmy along the water heater as you twist to fit, reach up over the quadrant (which I couldn't remove) line up the drill correctly (mostly by feel) and push very hard with the arm that's not numb. I have very good HSS drills that wouldn't dent it and after no little effort went to cobalt bits. They worked but it still took a mornings work. There seemed to be numerous jobs that had a simple description but were difficult in practice due to access and space. Others were simple but time consuming such as routing elecrical and data cables neatly and or locating a compass where it was free of interference. I like DIY boat projects and have done quite a few. I'm hopeful that this one is done!

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