Golden Wave 42 - Rudder and Shaft

[williamh]

Hi

We have fairly recently bought a 1981 Golden Wave 42. It sails well and is in reasonable condition, but we had a chain plate fail, and now I am having a very good look at all the 35 year old metal fittings.

I think it will be best to drop the rudder and check the bearings and associated hardware. Can anybody describe the setup or better still have drawings? (We have been in touch with Cheoy Lee Shipyards but they no longer have that information).

The bottom attachment to the skeg looks OK (but so did the chain plate), but the hardware between the tube and quadrant (I assume its a stuffing box) is pretty corroded.

I would be grateful for any advice or information.

William

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, William.

FWIW ➥ http://www.cheoyleeassociation.com/Goldenwaves.htm

[btrayfors]

Williamh,

I also have a 1981 GW42 and have owned her for 27 years. Lots to tell, but only time for a quick response now.

Chainplates and rod rigging. About 10 years ago, while in the Caribbean, I had a failure of the Navtec rod rigging turnbuckle on the topmast shroud. Replaced the entire shroud and turnbuckle. A year later, I was concerned enough to replace the standing rigging and associated hardware with 10mm British steel 1x19. Glad I did. At the same time I had all turnbuckles removed and tested at a reliable metal shop. They all failed, and several of the bolts securing the chainplates failed during removal. Replaced them all with very sturdy s/s custom-made pieces. This included the stem piece, the stern piece, and all the shroud chainplates.

Rudder. Last year while sailing offshore to Maine had a failure of the rudderpost assembly....it was leaking and was flexing from side-to-side at the top while we were underway. This was visible inside. Scared us to death, so we headed directly for the nearest repair yard (Kittery, ME) where I spent over a month while they removed the rudder and all its components. The square teak box was replaced with a laminated mahogany one. It was found also that for some unknown reason the fiberglass hull thickness near the rudder post was much too thin....thinner than the rest of the hull which was built to massive dimensions. Consequently, there was a lot of flex allowable, and an actual crack/hole had developed. We laid in some 18 layers of fibreglass inside and outside the hull to build up the thickness, before installing the new laminated block and fiberglassing the whole new assembly in place. This worked very well and no more problems after a hard summer's sailing this year. The s/s rudder post runs thru the square wooden block and is secured by the bearing atop the block. Nothing more above that, except the quadrant (and, in my case, an additional small arm for the autopilot). Now, with the repairs, nothing flexes.

Over the years I have replaced virtually all the Cheoy-Lee metal stuff, including the quadrant (put in a new Edson bronze one).

The GW42 is a great boat, strongly built for the most part and an excellent offshore passagemaker. Stick with her, do the repairs, and she'll serve you well.

Bill

Here's a pic of the rudder tube assembly.


And here's a pic of the completed repairs.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Pretty boats, for sure. And look to be roomy too. Turned up some stuff via a Bing search, including this thread. Which has the makings of several paths leading somewhere prductive http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...fo-125265.html
And there are a number of boat that have sold in the last few years, or that are up for sale. Either way, you could most likely reach out to the owners via the ads, or the brokers.

[tml]

Probably worth a call to Bob Perry. As I recall he did the original design but not involved with the build and some changes were made by the builder.

[btrayfors]

Probably won't help much. I called Bob when I first had the rudder problem. He said he had no details on the rudder/skeg construction. Apparently, Cheoy Lee did his own thing with that part of the build.

RE: the rigging, the chainplates as I mentioned should probably be replaced. It's a lot of work to dig them out of the cabinetry, but it's worth it.

The Navtec rod rigging itself was first class at the time of the build, but after 10 years of hard sailing I found problems. Glad I replaced it all, including the rigging screws, tangs, and all associated hardware.

Bill

[mickelsen]

Walk away. With respect to the rudder and rudder post you are only looking at the tip of the ice berg. These boats were built for eye appeal for those looking to get a lot on the cheap.
Regrets

[UNCIVILIZED]

Hopefully I'm not telling you things you already know. But then some newer folks will likely read this as well, so... For your chainplates, if you don't have new ones sourced yet, your best bet is to use titanium, due to increased corrosion resistance, & it's lack of work hardening. The cost is but a fraction more, & they're not overly tough to have made. Barring this, 2nd choice is to use Duplex Stainless instead of 304/306 or 316, for the same reasons.

Also, while this will likely make you cringe. But if you're pulling the rudder then it's time to check it for moisture. And probably as, or more importantly, for corrosion of it's metal bits, especially where any fittings enter it. Perhaps to include some non-destructive inspection of it's internals. Since the seals around anything that penetrates it's skin are prone to leaking.

[williamh]

Thank you for your replies. It has been very useful.

Chain Plates

We have removed the chain plates and the attachment fittings for the forestays and backstay. Replacements for the chainplates and backstay attachment are supposed to have been made, but if they haven't I will discuss using titanium instead of stainless. However we were thinking of removing and probably replacing them every five years anyway.

Rigging

According to the receipts the rigging was largely replaced about 10 years ago and the boat has not had much use since then. We thought it was in good order, but it is all getting checked now.

Rudder

Bill, thank you very much for description and photos of the rudder bearing work. The set up is much clearer to me now. We were worried about the corrosion of bearing and the attachment bolts. Now we are also worried about the fiberglass structure supporting it! Hopefully that is OK on our boat. For the record the steering is fine and there doesn't seem to be any leaks or movement. Do you know how the bolts/studs holding the bearing are attached. What would be involved in replacing those? And a final question, did you replace your bearing or is that the original cleaned up? I take it that if ours is badly corroded will have to get one fabricated.

Once again thanks for the recommendations and advice.

William

[btrayfors]

William,

You shouldn't have to replace the chain plates every 5 years or so. If you do the replacement right this time, they should last many times that long.

The bearing in the photo is original. Not sure how the top bearing was attached to the fiberglass-covered wood block (teak or iroko, I think) -- maybe lag bolts -- because I wasn't present when they removed them.

The new wood block was fabricated from laminated mahogany, then the whole shebang was sheathed in fiberglass. After beefing up the hull thickness, the whole thing was set back into place and many layers of fiberglass used to glass in the whole structure, including knees and extending to the rudder stop on both sides.

I have a hydraulic RAM on the autopilot, installed about 10 years ago. It can exert an unbelievable force on the rudder.

Bill

Originally Posted by williamh

Thank you for your replies. It has been very useful.

Chain Plates

We have removed the chain plates and the attachment fittings for the forestays and backstay. Replacements for the chainplates and backstay attachment are supposed to have been made, but if they haven't I will discuss using titanium instead of stainless. However we were thinking of removing and probably replacing them every five years anyway.

Rigging

According to the receipts the rigging was largely replaced about 10 years ago and the boat has not had much use since then. We thought it was in good order, but it is all getting checked now.

Rudder

Bill, thank you very much for description and photos of the rudder bearing work. The set up is much clearer to me now. We were worried about the corrosion of bearing and the attachment bolts. Now we are also worried about the fiberglass structure supporting it! Hopefully that is OK on our boat. For the record the steering is fine and there doesn't seem to be any leaks or movement. Do you know how the bolts/studs holding the bearing are attached. What would be involved in replacing those? And a final question, did you replace your bearing or is that the original cleaned up? I take it that if ours is badly corroded will have to get one fabricated.

Once again thanks for the recommendations and advice.

William

[exMaggieDrum]

Originally Posted by mickelsen

Walk away. With respect to the rudder and rudder post you are only looking at the tip of the ice berg. These boats were built for eye appeal for those looking to get a lot on the cheap.
Regrets

I'm curious about your sources of information for this statement. There are a lot of very happy Goldenwave 42 owners who have been over many oceans and through many storms.

[btrayfors]

Originally Posted by exMaggieDrum

I'm curious about your sources of information for this statement. There are a lot of very happy Goldenwave 42 owners who have been over many oceans and through many storms.

Yeah, me too.

While there are certainly boats out there to which mickelsen's comments might apply, with regard to the Golden Wave 42 they are very wide of the mark. Either he got the models mixed up or he's just ignorant of the facts.

The GW42 -- a Bob Perry design -- was built by Cheoy Lee under the name, "Golden Wave Shipyards" in Hong Kong. Far from being a cheaply built flimsy craft as mickelsen implied, it's a top-notch build from a very experienced builder who was at the time trying to compete with high-end yards.

Most of the hardware and fittings were from top British and American suppliers: Navtec rod rigging, Yacht Specialties wheel system, mast from Annapolis Spars, etc.

The hull was hand-laid up and very very strong -- except, in my case, for the area around the rudder post entry which somehow seemed thinner than it should have been.

In the 27 years I've owned her I've put well over 25,000 miles on her, much of that in the open ocean. She's come thru some pretty challenging weather on several occasions, including five (yes, five) hurricanes with over 100 knot winds in the marina. No damage.

exMaggieDrum is right. Please tell us how you came to believe the GW42 to be "built for eye appeal for those looking to get a lot on the cheap".

Bill
s/v Born Free
Golden Wave 42