Weekender - Gudgeons and Pintles

[Ken_StJohn]

I believe I am going to take the advice of some and use Gudgeons and Pintles for the rudder. Anyone have any suggestions for size?

[adla]

I bought mine from Duckworks - they were perfect. I did have to bend them to fit the stem on my weekender but it was not that big of a deal. I used the extra heavy duty ones with the long pin. Here is the page:

http://www.duckworksbbs.com/hardware/p-g/rl490/individual.htm

The people at Duckworks are great - super nice - great service and i think their prices are reasonable.

a.

[Dave R1]

I was going to suggest the same ones, Adla.

Ken, you need to consider that with the stub tiller through the transom, you won't be able to lift the rudder box on and off the hardware. You'll have to unscrew at least one pintle or gudgeon to remove the rudder box from the boat.

With that in mind you might want to install the top pintle upside down so as to trap the box and keep it in place.

As you know I've been thinking on this and I am considering doing that. Or I might use only gudgeons and use stainless bolts as the pins. Actually I'd probably use stainless rod sized to fit the gudgeons and thread only the ends for stainless lock nuts.

By doing it that way, if I want to remove the box, I can simple remove the pins and disconnect the steering cable which currently only requires the removal of a nut.

[Charlie Jones]

no need to thread- just drill a hole across the end, slip a washer over and insert a locking pin, looks like a stainless safety pin. The opposite end could have a cotter pin in it, also with a washer.

[Ken_StJohn]

Great ideas-thanks!

Adla - by having to bend the pintle I am assuming you bent the straps to fit along the sides of the stern block - kind of the same shape as the gudgeon, correct?

[adla]

here is a picture - it wasn't hard to bend them, i just marked them and used my vice and a couple of large vice grips...they fit very snuggly and are screwed in place as well.

a.

[Ken_StJohn]

Very Cool! Thanks Adla!!

[Tim Diebert]

I think I used the same set as adla. Though I believe Chuck has a wider set available now.

I set the pintle brackets into the wood of the rudder cheeks about 1/4". They seem to be wonderful quality at a fair price. I recomend any of Chucks products, I have used a lot.

Adla, your rig looks wonderful.

http://www.timtone.com/tt/ttphotos/images/RudderStockandRudder2.jpg[/url]

[adla]

Thanks Tim -

it should be obvious that i take quite a bit of inspiration from Annie M. and your web blog. -

a.