Lovely sunny sailing days, although the wind was a bit variable. I started by repairing my rudder blade control lines. One chafed through last week and looking at it, neither the uphaul nor downhaul was correctly routed. There wasn't really room for the lines used to fit round the roller which stops chafe. So I got two new dyneema 4mm lines. They are rated at nearly a ton, so I thought that would be strong enough.
Very neap tide, so I pulled her stern up on a slipway, unbolted the blade and had a good look. The old epoxy holding the lines in drilled out easily and I fitted the new lines using rapid setting araldite. Worked very well and it all slotted back in neatly. The dyneema is slightly stiff, which made it easy to just poke it back through the rudder head. The lines slip so easily around the roller now that I found I don't need the tackles to pull the rudder up or down, I can do it just pulling the line. So that has simplified the rudder head significantly. I have had to fit a thicker line just to the end of each, as the thin dyneema is very hard to grip, especially if you have sun tan lotion on your hands!
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