We had a problem last month with the steering system on our Hanse 505 (we like her very much). 

The boat was sailing reaching. After a broach-to, the rudder blocked on the hull at 90°!

The screws which clutch the rudder axis to the quadrant got more or less twisted : as a result it was impossible to unblock the rudder and the boat was turning always.

The crew asked for assistance, etc.

What do you thing?

Bruno

Hi Amiral,

I think you have experienced your rudder jamming against your hull, the Jefa rudder is buoyant and therefore floats. This results in the rudder riding up in bearings until the top of the rudder rubs or bottoms out on the hull.

I had this issue on my 400 and fixed it by purchasing the rotating spacer from Jefa. This teflon ring with torlon bearings slips onto the parallel section of the rudder shaft from inside the boat after you have put the rudder through the lower bearing but before it goes through the top bearing.

This disc effectively becomes a packer/spacer and runs between the bottom of the lower bearing and top of horizontal flat of rudder the rudder shaft.

For me this resulted in 12mm gap between the top of the rudder and hull.

We did not get any problem of vertical play.

But we found the solution to our question about quadrant.

At the beginning, the JEFA reference for HANSE 495 (and 505) was TRS 0428 dated 2010 June 30th.

The first HANSE 505 has been built from Spring 2013.

In 2014, JEFA changed its quadrant with a new reference TRS 1043, where a "key" has been added. Date 2014 May 1st.

With the new quadrant, and a key to be added in the axis of the rudder, they now include a pin made of steel to ensure that the parts are tight together even in case of hard circular friction due to heavy weather conditions.

But our Hand 505 has been built in June-July 2014, with the abandoned system TRS 0428 without key/pin, not strong enough.

S