the steering post is binding,..
 

My simple comments would be that someone stuffed up installing the thing.
Cheapest & easiest would possibly be to just alter the point at the bottom
over the 3/4". Get someone to turn it full throw from side to side to make
sure it isn't bent & that the 3/4" is consistant.
As far as the zincs go......... Is it a new boat to you? Maybe it happened
with the previous owner? If not then it sounds like a bad contact between
the zincs & the rudder or else some clown anti-fouled the zincs?
BruceM


"lupi" wrote in message
...
The problem seems to be that the steering post binds at the through
hull. Not a tremendous amount, I'm sure the mechanical advantage of
the quadrant, chains and gears compensate for it but my thought is
that this mechanism should work very smoothly to make less work for a
wind vane auto-steering widget which is in the works.
I hope that's what it's called. Rudder post? Anyway, it's a 3/4in
stainless post that's has 3/8" steel plates welded in two sections
fore and aft of the post- very small fin in front and large fin in
back. That is what forms the rudder. When I dropped the bottom of the
post-holder (I don't know the nautical term for this, sorry- it
supports the whole rudder at the bottom of the stainless post and runs
horizontally to the keel) the post springs over about 3/4 of an inch
off the centerline to starboard. It doesn't seem to be bent but it's
hard to sight.
Where the post admits to the inside of the hull, it passes through a
sort of sealed box with the quadrant on top. Lines run under the
cockpit floor and come up the binnacle (?) to a mighty ships wheel at
the center of a luxurious cockpit where lots of lewd behavior will
hopefully take place once I reach the tropics .
Is it worth reaming out the stainless-bored through hull to get the
post entirely straight? The sealed box is really what keeps sea water
out of the boat at this point, right?
p.s. the steel rudder is wasted but the zincs are perfect. Watsup with
that? Thanks for your time.