Making Sense Out Of
All The Rudders
The C250 has seen several iterations of rudders. There has been a 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation. The first two had both blade and beaching offerings. There may also be differences between these on the two models of C250, c/b and wing.
Almost immediately, the 1st was deemed to have inadequate control. By mid '96, the 2nd was released and Catalina retrofitted anyone who desired a rudder change for shipping charges only. R&R had a beaching rudder and according to instructions, the head was returned to the factory to be fitted to a 2nd. This entailed adding some side shims as the 2nd was thicker than the 1st.
The considerably longer and high aspect ratio design of 2nd solved the control problems. What it didn't have that the first did... was balance. The result was a rudder with full control but excessive torque. The torque problem was accentuated on the beaching rudder because of a poor hold down system that allowed the rudder to rake aft a few degrees.
After my '99 summer cruise, I was frustrated. The auto pilot had been ineffectual and unable to control the helm in most conditions. Any turn more than gentle, the pilot couldn't pull out of the turn and return to course. I contacted Catalina to get help but it was boat show season and several weeks before Gerry Douglas called.
During this time, I labored at the problelms and fairly well solved by partially balancing the 2nd generation beaching rudder and reworking the hold down system. These were fairly easy to do by cutting some relief on the head so that the bottom of the rudder raked forward and adding a hold down system that held the rudder forward. The helm was now much better and most important, the difficulty of pulling out of hard rudder lock turns was solved.
The greatest offense had been the hold down system that allowed the rudder to lag aft several degrees. Such a position increased the torque problems making it very difficult to pull out of hard turns. It was impossible for the auto pilot to effect a simple auto tack. With both control and torque issues better, the auto pilot could now helm the boat in most conditions.
When Gerry called he related that a 3rd rudder (balanced) was being designed which would solve the problems I'd noted and that it would be made available as an upgrade at cost but it would only be produced as a blade, the beaching rudder was being dropped.
I suggested that was unfortunate, that the beaching rudder was an important offering for a trailer sailor and that I'd solved the problems by reworking the rudder head and poor hold down system. He related a belief that the beaching was being operated wrongly with the rudder clamped in a raked back position and causing too many steering cable failures and I argued that the problem was most likely the poor hold down system that I'd dealt with. He won of course.
Last, he related that the new design would be shorter and some control would be compromised at greater heel angles. The shortening was necessary to avoid problems they'd had with a blade longer than the wing keel. What he didn't tell me was that a water ballast version would be a whole lot shorter... shorter even than the inadequate 1st generation rudder.
He also related that the wheel steering option had been discontinued. Either Edson, Catalina or both likely were unhappy with the amount of warranty repairs. At any rate, the wheel offering was only temporarily discontinued until release of the 3rd and Edson's redesign to a pull / pull cable system.
I told him that I'd stay with the 2nd, not liking the concern about losing any control and now fairly happy with the handling, however, in preparation for the '03 cruising season, I acquired a 3rd because the 2nd was showing crazing cracks below the rudder head, causing concern about its life expectancy and reports of those who had upgraded to the 3rd had indicated no loss of control between the 2nd and 3rd.
Testing of the 3rd shows it to be well balanced but somewhere between the 1st and 2nd in control ability, closer to the 1st. I struggled to reconcile my assessment of the control limitations with those of others. More testing during Great Lakes cruising verified control was inadequate and far less than the 2nd, especially for use with the auto pilot in conditions which the 2nd had absolutely no problems. Roundups which had been part of the experience with the 1st generation rudder returned.
This rudder was not as capable as the higher aspect ratio 2nd and was a regression. Finally, we sorted out why wing keel owners who upgraded were happy with the control and water ballast owners were not... there was a long and short 3rd... and water ballast were gettting the short version.
Catalina was supplying the short version so that the water ballast could be ramped with rudder hung even though its control was inadequate. Catalina did not want to produce the 3rd in a beaching either because they believed beaching rudders were being operated wrongly and causing warranty issues or because the drag of the 3rd design didn't lend itself to the long time Catalina rivet-detent hold down design. At any rate, wing keel owners found the 3rd a winner and water ballast owners found it a loser.
Interelated to the rudder issues is the wheel steering offering on the 250. It is an Edson small boat system. The problem is that the 250 original rudder was much smaller and the need for a large control rudder was not anticipated. When Catalina retrofitted to the high aspect ratio 2nd, the steering system couldn't handle its torque.
After the wheel steering was re-introduced with 3rd rudder and a pull / pull cable system I noting the Edson re-design hadn't corrected the steering ratio and decided to try to design an open cable system that did.
The primary purpose of a wheel is to gain leverage over that afforded by a tiller. The mental trap here is likely that the wheel concept was never taken seriously on this 25 foot boat... that the wheel was just a convenience item and not that it was needed to provide less helm effort.
Now happy with the 2nd generation beaching rudder with the improved hold down system, the last effort in my quest for a good helm for the 250 was to be a steering system without play and drag but most important was one that had an improved steering ratio that would lighten the demanding helm of the 250 when sailed in agressive conditions.
A lengthy list of design goals resulted in two months worth of sketches before a conversion design was birthed and built. It was the last step in taming R&R's wicked helm. My crew of many seasons offered kudos for the new helm which he described as now better than the helm on the C30 for which we both had sailed a fair amount... I agreed.
Three things deserve the credit.
To say that I'm happy that the helm has been tamed after six years of effort is an understatement. I'm equally as happy about retaining the beaching rudder, after all... R&R is a trailer sailor.
- The 2nd generation high aspect ratio rudder with adequate lift to provide control and depth to retain it in the most demanding conditions.
- Modifying the beaching rudder head to somewhat balance the rudder and correct the hold down shortcomings.
- Steering conversion to open cables to eliminate play, drag, and double the steering ratio.
It is very unfortunate that Catalina gave up on the beaching rudder concept for the C250 water ballast because in my opinion this difficult to manage hull needs rudder depth and a beaching allows having such depth and launching with rudder hung.
I further don't buy Catalina's arguement that the problems with the beaching rudder was improper operation... the problem was clearly a poor hold down system that could easily have been corrected. The Catalina rivet-detent system was given to wear and failing to hold the rudder fully forward to the frame. It also didn't have a pull down line or auto return to down following a grounding.
The fix for these was quite simple, making it a shame the virtues of the beaching rudder were clouded and under appreciated and ultimately the cause of Catalina currently fitting rudders on the 250 water ballast that are inadequate.
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