Not easy with such a large buoyant object. Work to get the bottom pinion mounted, then carefull raise the rudder until you can set the top pinion.

Broke the locking pinion on a scratch Blue Jay on the first sail. Keeping down until docked was a challenge.

   This is public forum so you might not want to disclose a lot of your personal information. The Builders Club provides a method for personal contact. It would be nice to have a user name search.

Hi George.. I appreciate your comment about personal info. Because CLC does not provide private messaaging to builders, I only (sometimes) provide my phone, email, and sometimes my builders log URL, info I dont mind being public.     It's a habit from business days of wanting to be easy to do business with and making it easy to reach me if desired, which does happen, and I thoroughly enjoy hearing from other builders.  If the CLC moderator wishes that I not provide that info, I'll surely exclude it.   I've tried at great length to reach other builders on the builders club, and it requires seaching by XX miles, meaning like 2,000 or more if you dont know where a person lives.   I am trying to reach George Krewson right now .. may have to ask John Harris how to reach him.

   CLC is a small operation, I would start withe "Contact Us" page and adress your email onto George Krewson or John Harris.

Unfortunatley the world has changed quite a bit form 1976 and the first micro computers.

   I've found that I can lean over the transom and guide the lower pintle into the gudgeon with one hand while holding the rudder with the other, Then attach the upper. The lower hand does get wet but it works for me. I am trying to figure a modification to convert the rudder to a kick-up design. 

Barry

I tried the put it on in the water approach with my sailing dinghy and had the same problems with aligning the pintles and gudgeons, especially in choppy water. I modified to a kick-up rudder like Barry suggests and have never regretted it.

They ought to be standard on all beach-launched boats.

Laszlo

Laszlo,

Did you convert an existing rudder to a kick up, or buy the CLC kick up rudder option?

By the way, I agree the kickup should be standard, or at least CLC should tell buyers that a kick up rudder option exists.  I would have gladly paid the up charge!  I didnt find out about the kick up rudder option until I had my rudder half built and had actually asked  if the boat sits on the rudder on the ground and nobody suggested the kickup as an option.   

I converted an existing one. It's actually pretty easy. I cut the blade, added cheeks to the upper half, drilled a hole and put a bolt thru for a pivot. It was fastened with a wingnut to allow adjustment of the force required to kick it up.

Laszlo

   Laszlo, that sounds perfect...you dont happen to have any pictures of the modified rudder do you?  Thanks!

No I don't, but maybe this weekend I can take some.

Laszlo

   Laszlo,

I'm leaning more and more to a kick up rudder over devising a way to installl a non-kick up once on the water, so if you get a chance to shoot some pics of your modified fixed rudder into a kick up, I'd be very grateful!

Thanks much

Curt

   FYI, the CLC web page for the Dory now includes an optional item for a kick up rudder and when you click on it you are directed to a series of diagrams for building it. If your plan is to modify your existing rudder you may get some ideas from those diagrams, though it seems to me that the kit will be a much more straightforward way to go.  the kit for this is about $100. It can be ordered separately from the Dory kit. If you canibalize your existing hardware that is all you will have to spend. if you want both rudders for some reason, you will need to get the hardware again, which is about $30.  after the past year of building the Dory itself, this wont be a hard thig to do and it will make a nice little winter project. Ive ordered one to work on this Fall.  I confirmed with John H that you can set up both rudders with the same gudgeons installed so they will be interchangeable in use.

David

  Thanks for the pictures Laszlo, looks nice...It looks like the blade and cheeks are both made from two thickness of plywood?

Did this rudder go down deeper into the water than your original fixed rudder?  I know this isnt a dory, but my dory rudder only goes a few inches below the bottom of the skeg, and yours looks like it goes a good foot below the bottom of the skeg?  

Thanks!

Curt

It's 1 thickness of 3/4-inch plywood. Both the thickness and depth of the blade are as designed for the boat. I didn't change either. That depth is why I went kick-up. I used the same thickness for the cheeks as was originally specified for the blade, though in hindsight I could probably have gotten away with 3/8-inch since there's 2 cheeks.

Really, all I did was cut the original blade into 2 pieces, add the cheeks to hold them together again and a pivot for the kicking up.

The pictures David mentions show pretty much the same thing, done in a style that more visually matches the general JHC design approach.

Have fun,

Laszlo

   I have the same issue with my Skerry (kick-up rudder).  In my case, I have to lean too far over the stern to get the pintles in the gudgeons.  The more I lean the deeper the stern (and gudeons) go into the water and the more I have to lean.  However, with the kickup rudder, there is really no need to have it off.

Steven

http://www.skerrybuild.com