Friday, August 14, 2009

Ready to Rock and Roll


Time to go get some old tires and get organized with friends, relatives, and neighbours to roll over the boat. My single garage is too small (only the standard 12 feet wide) to flip the boat over so we will have to carry the boat out to the lawn , roll it over, and carry it back into the garage. I'm hoping 8-10 people should be enough. Note to self: hand out the beer AFTER the boat is back in the garage.

I just happened to have my rudder in place for a test fit of the gudgeons and pintles and tiller. The rudder is hollow construction but with a substantial timber frame. There are large 3/4 inch cheeks at the top making the rudder 3" thick at the top and 1 1/4" thick at the bottom. The rudder has an endplate or winglet or the rudder would have to be at least 8 inches taller. I'm using gudgeon and pintles instead of the eyebolts and rod attachment shown in the manual. The gudgeon and pintles cost about $50, which is cheaper than what 3 inch stainless steel eyebolts were going to cost me from available suppliers where I live. The arrangement works only because the bottom gudgeon mounted on the keel bottom is a "vertical" gudgeon about 1" wide.


Here are closeups of the companionway hood fiberglassed and epoxied but not finish sanded yet. I think I was careful enough that I can follow through with my plan to leave the nice mahogany companionway varnished and not painted. The lighter coloured trim handles are white maple simply because I could not find any 1 inch thick mahogany. The contrast turned out quite well even if I do say so my self. The companionway will be permanently attached after the boat is turned back right side up.

Not wanting to waste some left over epoxy I couldn't resist giving the port side rubrail a coat of epoxy.
As promised in a comment in my previous post this photo proves that there are some patch filled holes where screws temporarily held the rubrail layers in place. The big round patch above the rubrail is not a mistake; it is a 3/4" drain hole from the dorade box filled with epoxy. A 1/2 " hole will be drilled into the epoxy fill so that the plywood core is very safely protected from water penetration.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Outstanding work, Dave! I much prefer the look of the gudgeon and pintles over the eyebolts. Seems like its easier to install too. Please post the name of the manufacturer and part numbers. TIA

Dave C. said...

The pintles and gudgeons are all by Race-Lite.
I purchased then from Duckworks Boat Building Supply along with the 2 required goosenecks. All prices are US dollars.
RL-WVG Weekender Vertical Gudgeon -$12.00
RL-490 Extra Heavy Duty Gudgeon - $11.60
RL-490-3 Extra Heavy Duty Pintle - $19.68
RL-390-L Heavy Duty Pintle(long pin) - $10.72
One pintle needs to be spread apart a bit and the other pressed together a bit to fit the rudder.
RL327/427 Gooseneck fo Sailtrack fits 5/8 track(RL-327) - $24.34
RL328- Fixed Gooseneck special ordered with 1/2" pin instead of tangs - $27.50
I also ordered some tangs, turnbuckles, and swaging tool for doing nicropress ovals on the wire rigging.
Shipping to Canada was $39.88 plus another $27 when it came through Canada Customs.