Rudder, Stock and Two Smoked Extrusions
by Mark Jardine 17 Sep 2018 12:00 BST
Rudder, Stock and Two Smoked Extrusions © Mark Jardine
Back in the Autumn of 2017, while sailing our Keyhaven Scow with my kids, the rudder stock snapped. It was no major drama and we made it back ashore safely, but it did lead me to question the design of it, so I gave the boys at Sea Sure a call to get a proper rudder stock and tiller made up.
The Sea Sure team are engineers through and through, and rightly proud of the high-quality product they manufacture. This is the story of how they designed and constructed a new custom rudder stock and tiller for our Scow.
With design, manufacture and testing all in-house, Sea Sure have full control over their entire product flow. They don't just machine the parts they produce, they also machine the templates and moulds for those parts.
Graham Brown, the Managing Director of Sea Sure explains why they decided on that path, "We are an engineering company and we take an engineering approach to our work. We want to start from scratch, working up from the design process. What that means is that when we're working with a boat builder, we can tune the design to what they need, and when they commission the part, they know it will work and that we can provide it in a short time-frame."
Ahead of any design or production came the measurement. Daniel Henderson checked and double-checked that I'd provided the team at Sea Sure with all the details they needed, and repeatedly asked me whether my measurements were accurate. This is a company of precision engineers, and without accurate input data, their product wouldn't be what was required. I made sure all the details I gave them were spot-on.
When building a new rudder stock, which isn't to a design of boat which they've done before, they start with the rudder blade width, anywhere between 18mm and 32mm. Then add on the position of the pintles and gudgeons and shape the stock to suit, add an edge return [bending an edge to stiffen a flat plate] for strength if necessary, and calculate the angle the tiller needs to be attached to the stock, made of either D sections or tubular extrusions.
Andrew Brown, whose job title is 'Process Improvement & Toolmaking', said of the product flow, "We can come up with whatever rudder stock you need. We have standard sizes for different rudder widths; 18, 19, 20, 22, 25, 26 & 32mm. We can make other sizes if needed, but we have to make the tooling to do so. At the end of the day we can do most things."
Once designed, the stock is machined to the desired shape on Sea Sure's computer numerically controlled (CNC) milling machine.
A key advantage that Sea Sure have is the knowledge the staff possess on the end-to-end process of designing and constructing a part or fitting. Andrew isn't just involved in creating tooling – he knows the product side as well – meaning when he designs a tool, he understands the usage and restrictions. Having the team and tooling in one building allows each person to be aware of the other areas in the business, allowing the clarity of thought about what is practical and needed, rather than what is theoretically possible. Outsourcing stages would result in a discontinuity in this process, taking out the incredible knowledge base they built in-house.
The Sea Sure rudder stock and tiller is a beautifully manufactured piece of kit, but would it fit? Having seen the design and production process, if I had any doubts whatsoever they would have been over my own measurements, not anything Sea Sure had done. Luckily, I had done my part correctly and the stock fitted perfectly to my existing pintles and we were ready to go sailing.
Quite simply we wouldn't have enjoyed this superb summer half as much without having access to our Scow, and I now feel that we have a rudder stock which is up to the job and will give us many years of fine service. This is British engineering at its best, and whether you're a sailor or in the marine industry, Sea Sure should be your first port of call whenever you need anything engineered for your boat.
Find out more at www.sea-sure.co.uk