My Rudder FAILED in the Pacific… So I Tore it Apart
11 March 2026 · 27 min · 10K views
What this video covers
Oliver drops and inspects the rudder on his Pacific Seacraft after suffering complete rudder failure during an Oregon-to-Hawaii passage in 38-knot winds and the largest seas he had encountered, an event that left the boat broaching beam-to for four hours with both rails going under.▶ 0:43 The rudder system is not a cable-and-quadrant setup but a direct-drive type Oliver describes as more reliable; he photographs and Sharpie-marks all components before disassembly.▶ 2:07 The autopilot arm attachment is found installed backwards — pin up instead of pin down — and corrected.▶ 6:11 A special-order hose fitting halts rudder work temporarily.▶ 10:00 The 250-lb rudder is lowered using borrowed anchor chain, wood blocking, and a car jack sourced from a co-op neighbor named David.▶ 8:27 While the rudder work pauses, Oliver discovers the aluminum mast step plate has galvanically dissolved against its stainless steel backing plate.▶ 11:04 Port Townsend Shipwrights fabricates a replacement aluminum plate.▶ 16:15 Suspected wood core in the mast step area proves, after drilling multiple test holes and consulting Pacific Seacraft directly, to be solid fiberglass with only sacrificial plywood used as a resin dam during original construction.▶ 15:02 Oliver fills drilled holes and voids with G10 plugs set in epoxy, taps new fastener holes in G10 blocks, and installs a neoprene barrier between the stainless and aluminum plates to prevent future galvanic corrosion.▶ 25:22 Galvanic isolation between dissimilar metals at the mast step is essential; without it, the aluminum component dissolves within the boat's service life.
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