with the few Bimare 18Ht's we have left here in the US, I'd like to here how others are doing. I am very pleased with Mine but recently the rudder casting cracked and then broke after a shop welded the crack.
If anyone has a spare casting, or replaced theirs I'd take as many as are available. I bought a Mast and Rudder blades from Cat-the-reaper in VA. a few years back but he does not have much left.
johno
Dan Berger used to have a stash of HT parts. PM me for his email if you wish.
Dave
I don't think Dan has anymore spares left. I contacted him last year and he said "no" other than the set of rudders/castings he had for an F18ht platform he was selling.
I broke a casting last summer when the lower starboard transom pintles failed, causing the rudder to flip up horizontally. It broke off a piece of the top hole on the casting that slides over the pintle. Not able to find a replacement, and not wanting to purchase an entire new set from another manufacturer, my solution was to epoxy the broken piece back on with some fiber-reinforced filler, fill the old hole, and then wrap the whole thing with several layers of carbon fiber cloth cut into strips. Then I re-drilled the hole after everything had cured. Fairly simple fix and getting the new hole re drilled was the hardest part. I don't have pictures of the process, but I'll see if I can get you any pictures of the finished repair.
So far I have half a summer of fairly hard sailing and the repair has held up fine.
Perhaps not the same failure as you had, but there's probably a solution to patch it that may get you back on the water.
-Peter