Hello Phillip,
Thanks very much for that. I was helping a friend
rebuild his Aries. We did manage to get it completely rebuilt. I have a small lathe which was instrumental. In the end, for the rudder, we found a fellow in the EU that was making them and bought one. That was good for me, since I had quite a lot of
work getting the vane disassembled and replacing all the worn bushings and other
parts. We also made a stern bracket to allow his tiller pilot to operate the Aries using a cut down paddle. It all worked beautiful when it was completed. I did have to make the breakaway tube, as this did not come with his new rudder.
It was
funny, just after he ordered the rudder I found a
boat in a local yard that was sitting on land that had an Aries. I could have patterned the rudder, but since he already ordered one, we went that
route. It was kind of a fun
project and my friend much appreciated getting the vane working again. He headed south in November.
Cheers,
Tim