Sailing in Maine

Sailing in Buzzards Bay

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Rudder and Leeboard Bracket

Click on any picture to enlarge it. Blog starts with the September 23rd post.

To make the rudder mount, I epoxied together several pieces of 3/4" (19mm) thick mahogany. I could only find pintles to fit over a 3/4" rudder, so I had to notch the rudder mounts for clearance.

The two outer pieces of the rudder mount were epoxied to a piece of Douglas fir.

The resulting assembly was then beveled on the leading edge.

I'm very pleased with the performance of the Ridgid portable table saw. It folds up for storage, which is a bonus.

The trailing edge was cut to a full radius with the Roto-Zip tool.

The rudder construction is the same as the leeboards. Here, it's being covered on both sides with 6 oz. fiberglass cloth.

The hull was sanded, then given 3 coats of Minwax Helmsman polyurethane. I didn't like the gloss or the "warmth" of the finish so I added another 3 coats of Interlux Schooner varnish.

Here the leeboard bracket is being pieced together from pieces of fir. Again, I'm making it up as I go along.

To save time I made the masts and spars from pine closet pole stock. It's a little on the heavy side but very strong. I'll make proper spruce replacements later on.

I picked up the vintage Stanley plane at the Wooden Boat show in Mystic, Connecticut.

The leeboards after being covered with glass cloth and epoxy.



I glued a steering arm to the rudder mount and attached a steering arm with a 3/8-16 stainless capscrew and a nylon insert nut, allowing free movement.

The rudder was attached to the rudder mount with another 3/8-16 stainless capscrew and nylon insert nut. It will be held down with a bungee cord.

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