Although finding a hole in ones boat caused by the mowing crew is not a happy event, we did get my dolphin striker rod changed out with a minimum of fuss. Naturally there was some corrosion on the lower beam, but there was still a some good aluminum there too. It was no worse or better than expected based pics posted by others. My method for extracting the rod from the compression was as follows:

After lowering the mast we loosened the bottom nut. Then I tightened the top nut to pull the rod through the sleeve a little bit. Once we saw it was gonna move ok we too the pad off the DS and determined there was enough play to get the rod out (and in) without needing to drop the dolphin striker itself. Once the rod was loose I cut off the bent part and starting tightening the lower nut to pull it out of the hole. It came out fairly easy and only for a few turns did we really need to hold the rod very tight. ( not original idea, I got this from these forums somewhere). After that the new rod, nuts, and washers were liberally smeared with antisieze and in it went. I initially tightened the rod 3-1/2 turns per the instructions. The prebend was a little shy of a 1/4 so I gave it another 3/4 turn. Prebend is now between 1/4 to 3/8 per the Mark 1 eyeball assembly.

Thanks to Randy Worrell and Tim Grover (fxloop) for helping me drop the mast, step the mast, and then drop it again to pack up once I found the mowers damage. I'm happy to say the new rod was not yet bent in the first raising and lowering of the mast!



Edited by tnell on Aug 27, 2017 - 02:12 PM.

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Tim
Collierville (Memphis), TN
Supercat 15--sold :(
Hobie monocat--given
Vanguard 15--traded for...
Nacra 4.5--sold
Nacra 5.7
Hobie 14–sold to make room for...
Supercat 17–sold
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