Rudder and Transom Progress

To level the transom height I bought an 8mm x 30mm x 2400mm piece of hardwood from Bunnings (hardware store) and carefully planed it down to 7mm. I was surprised how successful it was. It's more even than the transom that it'll mount on anyway.

I epoxied it on than gave it two coats of thinned epoxy, then painted it. It looked a bit ordinary where the epoxy had dribbled out so I trimmed away the excess epoxy and levelled each side with Sikaflex 291 - that may have been a mistake as I have to paint it again... Does Aquacote go over Sikaflex 291? I'll report back.

Almost ready for the main traveller.

While we are looking at the picture above, I'll be adding another tiller pivot support above the tiller slot. What is there at the moment seems a bit fragile. I have already bought longer bolts (see previous post).

The rudder pintles have had all the inner holes filled. I used hardwood dowel that were about 6mm too short, epoxied in then filled via a syringe with masking tape over to get a smooth finish to the transom.

I also moved the lower starboard pintle up about 9mm.

The rudder boxes have had all the gudgeon holes filled and the boxes have been painted but need a final coat.

I set myself back a bit when after test mounting the rudders to get the height correct. I found the port rudder fouled the right side of the port hull. I have ground away some timber to make it foul a bit less. It is now similar to the starboard rudder box which already had been tapered at the lower edge.

It originally had two 3mm aluminium (unpainted) spacers but when I tried that it caused the pivots to bind. I'll probably get away with one 3mm spacer.

The starboard rudder box and rudder. You can see the taper top left of the box (as it is viewed).

The rudders are too narrow for the rudder boxes (or the other way round). I made up four 180mm spacers from 1mm thick flexible PVC. It still isn't enough so I'll cut another four. I originally bought some storage containers to cut up but they shattered rather than cut when I tried cutting them with tin snips.

I have also made up two "curtains" from the same PVC sheet for the cockpit storage areas. I couldn't use the sliding hatch trick Don showed me as I have access portals in the way. This should keep out the rain (and leaves).

These will be held on with 20mm x 6mm mouldings at the top edge - just above the openings.

I have also been crawling around inside the hulls and cleaned out all the dust and rubbish.