BYYB Forums

I'm building my rudder box and I'm going with a tiller and the duckworks p&g's. How wide is the gap between the box and the stern block when using this hardware?  I'm trying to hold off on ordering until I know how much more stuff I need to order.

It depends on which you get, but the 1.5" wide pintles will leave about a 1/2" gap, which is typical of all well made pintles. The RaceLite RC-490 and RC-490-P are the ones you want, which will fit a 1.5" thick rudder head and they have a 3.5" pintle strap. The RL-690 will work, but they are backwards compared to the 490's having the pintle on the transom. These work well if you intend to hand mount the rudder head while aboard frequently.

In both cases you'll also need a keeper to prevent the rudder head from floating up and out of the gudgeon. There are two types a simple "L" shaped swiveling piece (RL-337) or a spring clip type (RL-336. I've always used the L shaped ones, not liking the spring clip style, but it's purely a personal preference thing.

There is absolutely no benefit installing a gap filling device with a 1/2" pintle gap. It's just an extra part and fasteners to maintain, break, complicate installing the rudder head, etc.

The Racelite gudgeon/pintel setup made specifically for the Weekender will leave more than a 1/2" gap.  Is that a major problem?  Do we need to add the "gills" as per the plans?

Dave

Greetings,

Yes the gap on the special Weekender-specific Racelite gudgeon set is larger than desired, but only if you go with a totally stock rudder box, as the straps for the rudder box form an A-frame that pushes the rudder away from the transom.  The solution is to add a triangular trim piece to the front of the rudder box to fill the gap.

Here is a nice photo of a rudder box with the triangular trim.


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

This particular gudgeon and pintle set is a little unusual.  Normally, the pintles have a male pin that fits into a female socket on the gudgeon.  This set is more of a pair of gudgeons mated back to back with a free pin that joins them together and is retained by a snap ring ... more of a female - male - female arrangement.

Cheers,
Tom

Tom:  Thanks for pointing out what should be obvious to me!  The triangular gudgeon strip solves the whole problem.  Duckworks should mention it on their website.

Dave