Cast aluminum, by its nature, fails catastrophically with almost no deformation to warn you. Stainless steel will deform providing advance warning long before failure. We have made this part so robust it is unlikely to ever fail. In addition, a stainless
tiller head eliminates the corrosion problem inherent in having an aluminum head mounted to a stainless steel Rudder Post. With stainless against stainless any galvanic corrosion problem is eliminated.
For use on the Catalina 34 (through hull #1027 in 1989), the Catalina 36 (through hull # 1039 in 1989) and the Catalina 38.
Neither the holes in the old aluminum Tiller Head nor those in the Rudder Shaft were precisely drilled. In fact, the bolt hole in your Rudder Shaft was drilled based on hand-fitting the Tiller Head to the rudder shaft while both were in the boat. As a result, the hole location in each rudder shaft is unique. The hole in our Tiller Head is located exactly where the hole in the aluminum Tiller Head was supposed to be located (but usually weren't). Holes in one or both parts will have to be reamed to fit.
