BYYB Forums

What type of bolt is everyone using for the middle of the rudder box?  I have a hex bolt and washer, but man, it really sticks out.

Another question.  I did not read ahead in the instructions enough and I stupidly painted the entire boat already not realizing you have to have a hole in the back of the keel for the eye bolt nut for the rudder assembly.  As you all are aware, paint is very expensive, thus I am not inclined to disturb and repaint this small of an area.  I'd like to overdrill the hole, fill with epoxy and put a very long bolt in, but that won't work as this is a horizontal hole and the epoxy would run out.  I think I read in the instructions that there were previous issues with just using a long screw, thus this bolt design.  Any ideas out there?

If you thicken the epoxy (I'd use silica for the strength) then you should be OK.  As a suggestion ...

Drill your hole oversized as you were planning.  Apply a liberal amount of grease to the eyebolt you are intending to use, put a washer on it, then a couple of threaded inserts

Fill the hole with thickened epoxy and slide this assembly in to place.  Use painters tape to hold it in.

Hopefully the washer will keep the epoxy mostly in the hole and the threaded inserts will grip the epoxy well.  If the inside of your hole is rough the the epoxy should have a good grip on it.  Greasing the eyebolt will allow you to replace/adjust it if necessary.  It may require the application of heat to soften the epoxy to remove it.

Good luck.

I got a bolt that had a long enough shaft that there were no threads in contact with the box or rudder.  The rudder box is 1 5/8" thick where the bolt passes through.  I got a 2 1/2" bolt which had 2" of shaft and 1/2' of thread.  I used a die to cut the existing threads back to where the shaft was 1 3/4" so a bolt tightened on them would still have some play but not excessively so.  Then I cut off the threaded portion of the bolt to where a nut tightened matched so there were no threads that extend beyond the bolt.  This way on one sidde the only thing that sticks out is the hex head and on the other a nut.  I considered building up the wood thickness to recess the hex head and nut which would prevent the hex head or nut from touching the transom but changed my mind when I looked at the attached rudder assembly and realized that the motor well cut out kept the tiller from being extended far enough in either direction to allow the rudder box and bolt to touch the transom.

To cover the gap between keel and rudder I went to the farm supply store (great place for boat parts) and got a section of "baler belt".  This is a heavy duty piece of reinforced rubber that comes in a variety of widths and does a great job.

Greetings Jeff,

Loose the bolt.  There are better options available.   Remember, the Stevensons designed the Weekender so that you could build it from materials available from a big-box hardware store (Lowes, Home-Depot, Menards, et al), but you don't have to.  This is one area that's worth upgrading to real boatsy hardware.

I got these fancy stainless steel gudgeons and pintles to hang my rudder from Duckworks.
http://www.duckworksbbs.com/hardware/p-g.../index.htm
The were welded up by Racelite specifically to fit a Weekender.

Then I bought a stainless steel rudder pivot pin, fender washers, and cotter pin from the local hardware store that looks like the pintle pin in the attached photos.  The one I bought had a series of holes drilled in the shaft for cotter pin placement.  Assemble the rudder, slide the pin through, (pin, washer, rudder box, rudder blade, rudder box, washer, cotter pin), note which hole gives the proper length, and cut or grind the shaft to length.

Cheers,
Tom

[attachment=1][attachment=2]

Tom:  Thanks for the info on the rudder mounting hardware.  I was looking at the plans, and the long bolt, access holes and eyebolts seemed a bit byzantine for my taste!  I realize the original intent of the Stevenson's, but the hardware you used is neat, clean and easyto install.  I trust you bought the whole set and then replaced the pintle pins with your own from the hardware store.  Did you modify construction of the rudder box to accomodate the hardware, or does if fit fine if you build the rudder box as per plans?

Dave

My two cents worth. The gudgens and pintles is a major inprovement to the boat. It is not very espensive and does a much better job. If you go to a messabout somewhere you will find not one in ten have the origional design set up. I am glad someone ask about this, a lot of builders are building there first boat and don't know the gudgens and pintles are an option or where to get them. Bud

Tom.  THANK YOU VERY MUCH!  I love your idea. It also prompted me to think about other areas of the boat where typical hardware is recommended in the plans, but there are other options out there. 

(12-03-2009, 05:36 PM)Dave Blake link Wrote: [ -> ]I trust you bought the whole set and then replaced the pintle pins with your own from the hardware store.  Did you modify construction of the rudder box to accomodate the hardware, or does if fit fine if you build the rudder box as per plans?

Greetings Dave,

No, everything you see in the photo is how it comes from Duckworks and Racelite. I liked the pintle pin so much I went out and found a similar pin for the rudder pivot pin.  See attached photo for that. (I think they were made by Hillman)

The hardware fits the stock rudder.  However, the front triangle of the gudgeon attached to the rudder sticks out too far for my taste, so you might want to add a matching triangle of wood to the front face of the rudder to clean the looks up a bit.  If you follow the link above to the Duckworks page, you will see a photo of the slightly modified rudder box with the trianglular strip attached to the front of the box.

Cheers,
Tom

If you cast a threaded rod coupler in the pivot hole of your rudder, with thickened epoxy, you will always have a way of securing your blade flush. Use two flathead machine screws, one from each side and of course cut to length so they don't bottom out in the coupler. You could use button or pan head machine screws too, maybe with a washer, but these do stick up off the surface of the box. Make sure you use some "LockTite" on the threads so they can't back out by accident, but are still fairly easy to remove if necessary.

The other option is to use a barrel bolt and matching screw. The heads on most of these are like button heads, but flattened out even more, which makes them even better for this application. Again, you need to use a thread locker (LockTite) so it doesn't back off.

Of course there's the traditional and clumsy method of just using a standard machine bolt, nylon insert lock nut and washers, which stands well off the surface and looks fairly Mickey Mouse in comparison to some of the other methods. You could dress this up a touch buy using acorn nuts on a short bit of threaded rod, though they'll still stick out a mile from the box, it'll look slightly better.