Steering quadrant problem

[ThinkingAboutIt]

The quadrant on my Choey Lee 32 (Richards) is shot. Unfortunately, it was bored at about 75° to the rudder so that it can fit in a very tight place. Unfortunately, all available quadrants are bored so they fit 90°. Furthermore, for valid liability and safety reasons, manufacturers will not drill a non-90° angle or sell a blank quadrant. Has anyone else solved this issue? (If you know the solution, please stop reading this diatribe and send me the answer!)

Details: The quadrant was attached to the 1.5 inch rudder post which sticks out of the waterproof sole by about 3.5 inches. The top is squared off for an emergency tiller. An easily removable floor covers the rudder post, quadrant, and steering cables leading through a couple of associated blocks to the steering pedestal. At no point in steering are the blocks and quadrant in precisely the same plane.

I am considering the following. If you have had success or failure with any of these, please let me know.
1. Find a used quadrant that works. No luck there.
2. Welding the rusty cast iron quadrant back together. It's currantly a real mess because of the rust, broken places, and the fact that I had to cut the bolts/quadrant roughly to remove it from the post.
3. Fabricating a new quadrant at the 75° angle. An excellent local machine shop said it would cost about $2500 (yikes!) to replicate what I have, but a simplified version might cost less.
4. Getting a new steering system, professionally designed, using options I am unaware of. This sounds like I am skeptical, but in fact, I have been dazzled by really smart people who know what they are talking about!
5. Switching to a tiller. This would be an onerous task including engineering an 18 inch rudder post extension with bearings, removing/sealing the pedestal, moving the electronics/compass/table/throttle, and buying the whole tiller assembly.
6. Any other options?

Thank you all in advance.

[psk125]

Sounds like a new quadrant is what you need. You do not want to mess with a broken, welded rusty unit that isn't 100% dependable. Have you looked into options other than cast iron? Would heavy steel plate, cut to shape, drilled for the rudder post and milled for the steering cables work? Or could you find a cast iron wheel and cut it down, so as not to have to make an expensive whole new casting?

[tkeithlu]

psk125 speaks with wisdom. I do not think you are going to escape the cost of fabrication. Welding cast iron is tricky at best. A simplified design in steel, which is easy to work and to weld, seems in order. If I were designing this I think that I would make it in two parts, one the tube and the other the plate, and then weld them together at 75 degrees.

[Matt Johnson]

Is there enough room in a new quadrant to bore the hole out and put in a 75 degree insert? You'd only need a machine shop to bore and fabricate an insert.

Matt

[Eigenvector]

Assuming the attachment is a keyway, just have a shop broach you a new keyway in the correct orientation. (hard to say without a picture)

[Matt Johnson]

They may not sell you a blank quadrant, but I'm sure they'll sell one with a 1" post hole. Just have a machine shop turn that into your 1-1/2" 75 degree orientation.


Matt

[TrentePieds]

ThinkingAboutIt:

Your description of the steering arrangements on your boat doesn't seem to match the steering arrangements depicted here:

https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/offshore-32-richards

I assume, therefore, that your boat has been retrofitted with wheel steering, and that that job was not done as well as it could have been.

It would not, as I understand your description of your particular arrangement, be very difficult at all to return the steering to its original configuration depicted in the drawing referenced above. I am not, myself, fond of wheel steering in small boats, because a steering pedestal taking pride of place in the cockpit detracts enormously from the utility of the cockpit as living space, and Lord knows that there is little enough of that in a 32-foot boat :-)

Because one doesn't steer a sailboat as one must needs steer a car, given its much higher speeds and its usual proximity to other lethal missiles moving at high speed, there is not IMO any need whatever to have instruments mounted immediately under ones nose as one must have in a car. Thus the steering pedestal has no justification as an instrument mount. Wheel steering has no justification in boats, IMO, until a boat is so big that the steering loads become so high that a substantial mechanical advantage in the steering mechanism becomes necessary to get the job done at all.

But if you wish to retain your existing set-up, I would suggest that a brass foundry, which you will find in all major cities even in this age of plastics, can use the existing, broken quadrant as a pattern. You will need to do a make shift welding job to hold the old one together, and to grind the weld(s) smooth, but no strength is required because the old quadrant will only be used as a pattern and then discarded. A bronze casting will be plenty strong enough for the boat. In fact, using bronze, you will never again have the problem the present quadrant has presented you with.

Bonne chance :-)!

TrentePieds

[deblen]

If you have to make a new quadrant,I encourage you to look at marine aluminum. A grade such as 508x or 6061-- 1" or 1-1/4 plate.

You can cut a quadrant shape out of a square with a woodworking skil,jig or bandsaw-just like wood.make cable grooves with a router,etc.
Comm. fish boats have been using marine alum. for most metal work for many years. The correct alloys are strong & non-corroding. Cheers/Len


https://titanium-stainless-steel.con...aluminum-plate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ijNb8sef58

[sanibel sailor]

How could a tilted quadrant work well? It seems to me that a fair lead of the cables would not be possible thru the range of travel.

Isn't this the reason they are all carefully made at 90 degrees to the shaft, to maintain alignment?

[malbert73]

I converted to tiller steering on my prior boat, a Luders 33. Best thing I did. McMaster carr and some online metal supplier for a bronze post and bronze tubing that I had keyed at a machine shop to join the post.
Most expensive was the Edson tiller to rudder post fitting but was worth it for how nice it is.
I bought bronze bearings and set them in fiberglass to make my new upper post bearing.
Best of all my rudder post prior was not supported at the top so would leak underway at stuffing box, likely from the flexing. That stopped with the tiller