BB Hardware - Rudders and Struts

Steve Seebold · Sep 20, 2013

Jorgen Andersson said:
Steve Seebold said:

I was looking at the hardware from www.bbhardware.se this morning and I'll say again, it's some nice stuff. A little on the pricey side, but nice stuff.

I did however see a point on his strut that concerns me and should concern all of you.

Where the leg joins the tube that holds the shaft assembly, he has a sharp corner. In aluminum, that is a place for a crack to occur which could cause a catastrophic failure resulting in either severe damage to the boat or loss of the prop and shaft assembly.

I recommended to him that he replace those sharp corners with a 3mm corner radius.

I'm not trying to be critical here, but I have been in aerospace machining for over 40 years, and I have seen failures like that countless times.

Good luck guys,

Steve

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Hi Steve

Thanks for input, I have just talked to BB and he says that struts have been made for about three years and many of them raced at Naviga top level, no failures reported so far.

Thanks

Jorgen

You have a good point, BUT, It only takes one piece to fail and now your name is in the trash. I'm not saying it's GOING to happen, what I am saying is it could. I have seen 7075 parts fail. I think a better choice for struts would be 7050 T7. It's a lot more expensive, but it's a lot more vibration resistant.