Mounting the Rudder

I started making gudgeons and pintles by bending the steel stock specified in the plans.

I used a round form to help bend the steel in the right curve.

Here I'm completing the bend.

I've finished 4 of the 5 gudgeons. They are bent slightly differently depending on where they fit on the rudder or the stern.

I complete the fabrication by welding a section in as described in the plans.

I am test fitting the pintle on the rudder.

There's one problem. If I try to extend the pintle up to the point where I believe the fifth gudgeon is supposed to be it runs into the rudder. Either I am going to have to curve the pintle or notch the rudder or do without the fifth gudgeon. This is a question for the designer as the stern and the rudder conform to the shape specified in the plans.

The gudgeons shown above are my second attempt to fabricate them. Shown here is an example of the first attempt. The first problem is that I made the holes in the wrong place resulting in them being too close to the edge of the rudder or stern to give good support. The second problem is that I welded them up with the wrong polarity resulting in metal pellets sticking to the surface near where I welded creating a mess. Finally when I drilled new holes and tried to weld shut the old ones I wound up burning bigger holes. At this point I decided to start over.

Here the four gudgeons are fastened and the rudder is hung on the stern. It immediately became apparent that the rudder prefers to hang to one side or the other with the tiller. Without the tiller it hangs vertically like it's supposed to. This suggests that the tiller is too heavy. Another question for the designer.