Straighten / replace rudder

It's an interesting dilema. They will be unable to do anything with the rudder until spring as there is no access to the boat with the travel lift without moving a number of other boats (mine is right against the shop to facilitate other pre-planned work over the winter). If I wait till spring, and then find out it can't be straightened or it cracks trying, do I risk weeks or months delay in launch? Do I want to fret about that possibility all winter? We don't want another short boating season like this year where a scheduled 1 week turned into a month on land.

Being an engineer I took my calipers and measured the shaft on the good rudder and the bent rudder. I measured the bent shaft at several azimuths and the shaft is measuably thinned by stretching deformation at the bend. If that were in any of the systems I design it would be tagged for replacement. The bend is in a very small area right at the top of the blade, so will be a difficult location to get a press into cleanly, and the blade itself would need to resist the straightening force too.

What really has me wondering is how in the h___ did some PO do that? The leading and trailing edges of the rudder have no dent's, bends or other visible deformation. For someone to back into something (the rudder is bent forward) hard enough to bend the shaft and not bend the rudder blade seems "challenging". Did they straighten the blade but leave the shaft bent? If so why. Was the shaft defectivly soft to start with which allowed it to bend but the blade not to deform? There is no indication the hull was damaged in the event, another suspision the shaft is very soft. Has it been straightened before?

The cost of a new rudder is not trivial, but the cost to remove and replace is likely to be as much, so the "part" itself is not the only driver. I generally have a rule if the cost to remove/inspect/repair/reinstall nears the cost of a new part then you might as well get a new part and be done with it. The "cost" of missing a month of boating is more important than a few extra $$ on a very expensive toy whose purpose is to get away and have fun.

I ordered the new rudder. The elimination of schedule risk and my worrying about it all winter won out.

The boat is blocked at a typical height, too low to get the approx 15" of rudder shaft out of the shaft log. Bottom of the rudder is about 6-8" off the ground. They have it next to the shop as I scheduled other work for over the winter so they need power and a managible distance from the boat to tools to the boat to tools ..... There is no way to get the travel lift in to raise the boat without moving multiple other boats (moving to where is a big issue too). Yard is VERY full this year.

I would think rudder trailing edge would cut line before bent 1-1/2" dia shaft but who knows??

Measured rudder, Buck now Hydrosearch rudder fits exact measurements. PN 10R40SS1.5 Ordered from Deep Blue, had in stock.

Concrete. See picture in post #15. Litterally just outside their office door.