Front steering is off

[mikest29]

I purchased an older DN this past fall and sailed it twice. It went pretty good. I notice the hole for the front steering chock is not drilled straight. The chock is off at a slight angle. I am going to tape the bottom and fill with West epoxy and filler and re-drill the hole straight. Is this a good way to repair ?

[KB [us5219]]

First of all, what axis is it crooked on?   Many are drilled purposely with some fore-aft rake in them.   
If you want to fill the hole, I recommend finding a dowel that will fit the hole and glue that in with epoxy.  Then drill it out correctly.  Trying to use just epoxy and filler will be expensive and messy.  Also, too thick of epoxy will put off excess heat as it cures and could cause it to bubble out, or other odd problems. 
Hopefully you can sand the dowel or drill out the hole so it fits nicely.  Not too snug, as you dont want too much glue to scrape off the dowel as you slide it in.  IF it fits loosely, make sure you can hold it in place with a screw, clamp, block, etc.  so it wont move on you.  Use wax paper to keep clamps and blocks from getting glued to your boat!

[mikest29]

The hole is off the side axis. The runner sits cocked slightly to the left. I like your idea about the dowel...

[Bob Gray]

I had similiar problem with a boat after a rebuild after an accident. To fix the problem I drilled out the hole for my bushing with a slightly oversized drill, put excess epoxy on the bushing, lined everything up and let the epoxy set up. On some older boats there isn't a tube bushing but the epoxy at the hole acts as the bushing. To fix the problem here do what I  did except take a piece of metal tubing that is the same diameter as your steering chock ( or use the steering chock ) grease it up with Vaseline, epoxy it, line it all up, and let it set up. After the epoxy has set up remove the tube and you'll have a lined up steering system. The Vaseline acts as a release agent.

[mikest29]

I used the dowel and it worked out great. Thanks