The rudder post gets a proper Jefa gaiter

Tuesday, March 22  The agenda for Tuesday was a work day for John while Sarah went off to play with her stepsister Aliyah who stopped by, all the way from Augusta, GA.  Owl Moon was supposed to be ready for the passage to Annapolis by the end of the previous weekend, but in the time between weekends, John confirmed that the suspicious black material covering the rudder post probably should be replaced.  The original flexible neoprene gaiter installed by Tartan had been removed and in its place was something that looked suspiciously like a piece of relatively inflexible rubber, perhaps from an inner tube.

John had consulted with Tartan and then PYI, maker of the gaiter installed by Tartan on new 4300s, and decided that a proper gaiter should be installed before making the passage to Annapolis.  PYI would ship the gaiter flat, ready to wrap around the post and then cement the two edges together. The challenge was going to be getting the gaiter on properly in place with the seam cemented flat using contact cement (only one try with contact cement, once the prepped surfaces come in contact, no moving them).

Rudder post with mysterious black material; naked rudder post; rudder post with Jefa gaiter installed (left to right).
Note: Rudder position sensor has been moved above the autopilot tiller connection.

You can see in the photos above that there was not a flat or smooth surface to work on for cementing the gaiter edges.  I thought removing the autopilot tiller arm attachment to the rudder post would give me more space to work (at least the carbon fiber rudder post was smooth).  However, my attempt to remove it failed.  I backed off the bolts, but the arm still seem locked to the post.  I did not want to create more issues by taking any drastic measures in an attempt to remove the tiller arm, so decided I would do the job with the tiller arm in place...I think I succeeded in doing so.  It can only be tested under use, so time will tell.

The key to doing the job was to cover one prepped surface with a plastic strip which I peeled off as I worked up from the bottom adhering the edges.  I also taped the back side of the gaiter in place before applying the contact cement to the edges on the seam side so that I didn't need to do a lot of manipulating of the gaiter with the prepped edges.

I have moved the rudder position sensor above the tiller arm and that seems to be a much better location as it does not interfere with the top of the gaiter attachment.  However, still to be done is to raise the other part of the position sensor (out of the photo to the left) to the same level.