The rudder
I started making a small rudder
Two sheets of 10mm plywood glued together
You can never have enough clamps!
Here I shaped the the rudder blade and made a mould and cut some slats for the tiller.
A friend of mine saw good options for a cheese board. 😂
Gluing 6 slats of Oregon Pine and 1 teak slat in the middle
Enough clamps to get some pressure.
I took the wood out of the clamps and made a mortise in the tiller
Nice to see the round shape but it is a bit too long.
Here I have rounded the tiller with a router
I do like the teak stripe in it!
While waiting for wood I started to make some gudgeons and pintles out of scrap brass.
Making all the separate pieces first.
Brassed with silver
Checking the fit around the rudder head block.
Still to do: drilling screw holes and polishing.
The pintles slightly tapered and polished.
The rudder blade has been epoxied and painted.
Making A new rudder
I decided to make a new rudder which is 8 cm taller than the previous one. In a side view on one of the the drawings I saw the tiller was drawn in a lower position than the top of the transom but further there were no indications about its position so I contacted Iain Oughtred. He came up with three options: a cutout in the transom, a hole in the transom for the tiller or extending the rudder. I went for the last option.
At the end of a Sunday afternoon I went back to the shed to clean up but couldn't resist finishing the rudder and attaching it to the transom. Boatbuilding sure is addictive!
I've attached an Optimist rudder spring to prevent loosing the rudder.
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