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We are often supplied with snippets of useful information to share with members. If you have any contributions, please send them to the Secretary
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Early Dufour’s were supplied with masts, booms and spars made by National Masts of La Rochelle. This company are now part of Z-Spars, who can supply any replacement parts. Their contact details are available at Z-Spars. Thanks to Nick Kerr. May 2007
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Water in rudders of earlier Dufour boats.
Water in rudders of the 2800 (and other models of the same time) is a common problem. If you drill a small hole towards the bottom, it will drain out.
The rudder blade is made in two mouldings and joined at the edges. The stainless steel stock has three plates (tangs) welded out at right angles that are bonded to the mouldings.
People who have had this problem have allowed the water to drain out by drilling small holes, then injected builders polystyrene foam (the material that is used to fill voids around plastic pipes through walls) and the holes refilled with epoxy.
I have not heard of anyone having a rudder fail due to the welds breaking (they are stainless and hopefully the welding was OK), although there have been a few that have split their rudder by grounding it.
A sketch of the stock assembly in the boat, reproduced from one of the very early editions of Dufour News is available here
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Rudder stiffness on Classic Range of boats.
We have had a number of reports of the rudders of Classic series boats becoming stiff. Dufour supplied the following information:
I attach a few drawings showing the C32 and C50 steering system. Slight modification had appeared during the production time of these two boats but the base is good and will give you a good idea of what should be done to drop the rudders. Both boats have self aligning bearings, which are in fact white ball bearing Ertacetal made. This material takes much less water than Nylon and is far cheaper than Nyloid. The alloy housings only are laminated or bonded to the hull at the bottom and bolted at the rudder top.
The only maintenance the manufacturer of these bearings recommends is to yearly drop the rudder and clean both the bottom housing and bearing. Not really a problem if scheduled.
To remove the ball bearings rotate them till they are vertical and so you can pull them through the housing groove.
The lower bearing of the Dufour 50 is different, as shown on the drawing.
The drawings can be supplied to Members of the Association on request to the Secretary
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