Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

 Hello Chums,

New to this forum, but I have built a Skerry and she is now turning heads on the Exe in Devon. The is a blog about the build on the UK distributors forum, Fyne Boat Kits.

I am still ironing out wrinkles in the rigging set up. I have made several modifications and am using a beautiful balanced lug rig from another supplier. My feeling was that although the sprit rig was very in keeping with the boat's style, I wanted a rig that was easy to dowse and reef as necessary.

The boat sails beautifully and I had a great afternoon on the water with my son yesterday, which is essentially what this project was all about, so huge thanks to John for such a great craft.

However, I have a problem with the rudder. The plans show the top gudgeon connecting to the stern below the line of the aft seat - into the aft buoyancy tank.

At the point of connection the 6mm hull is glasses with tape on either side, but I worried that this might not be sufficiently robust to take the rudder load. I am not kicking myself for not reinforcing this point with some extra chunks of 18mm ply to give a stronger platform to screw into. Yesterday the screws on the starboard side popped out under sail. It did not really affect the boats performance and we only noticed the problem when we were back on shore.

I am now in two minds as to how to fix this issue. Either move the gudgeon up above the aft seat as Reinhold has done on his boat. Or try to fix a block inside the aft buoyancy tank to hold a longer fixing (requiring the skill of a gynaecologist to fix it in place). Or to use a longer screw through the existing hole, fixed in with a blob of epoxy.

When I first fixed the gudgeon there did not seem to be sufficient purchase in the glassed 6mm ply to draw the gudgeon (which had to be shaped to fit the hull) flush to the hull and I am worried that the same will happen again. I am worried that I am just courting failure again with this method.

I’d be interested to know if anyone else has an innovative solution to this problem.

Thanks

Andy

Ps. Sorry for not uploading pics, but there are lots of pics of the build on the Fyne Boats forum!

 

 

 


15 replies:

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RE: Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

I epoxied an extra piece of hard wood against the aftstern in my skerry. In your case i should: 

1: contemplate the use of a hollow wall anchor and plenty expoxy.

2: try gynaecology

3: do as Reinhart

Do not try longer screw with an epoxyblob. I think that will not give much extra grip and there even is the possibility that the upper gudgeon screws will come out through the aft deck. 

Ruud

RE: Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

Thanks Ruud,

This afternoon I shaped a test piece of 18mm ply that I hope mgith do the trick under the aft seat. Will see if it fits during the week, but will need to get the boat back from the club to do this surgery. A lot will depend on how much epoxy has run down from installing the seats as to whether or not a patch can be fitted in that position.

The other option I am considering is creating a large wodge of expoy putty and jamming it into the top corner where the seat meets the stern [anels. I assume that longer screws woudl take to that as a fixing..?

With apologies to Reinhard for gettign his name wrong.

Andy

 

 

 

 

RE: Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

Hey Andy,

Depends on where exactly you placed the upper gudgeon and how you placed the aftdeck. According to my CLC plan sheet 3 the outermost screw of the uppermost gudgeon seems to end exactly in the aftdeck.So there is a risk that it wil go through your epoxywodge and ends up through the deck. 

Btw I think the epoxy in the top corner will be much easier to apply than fitting in plywood and will work as well. 

Ruud

RE: Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

i meant sheet 1 (of 3)   

RE: Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

Thanks Rudd,

The screws that were supplied with the  gudgeon fitting are not that long - about 3/4 inch I think. Bearing in mind the fact that where the gudgeon attaches, the screws penetrate the ply at an angle and then should hit the stern filet before hitting the the aft seat itself which is 9mm ply (if the gudgeon is fitted in that location), if my gudgeon fixing does hit the seat, I am not sure if it will penetrate right through. However,  using longer fixings certainly might create this issue. I need to try to work this out when I get back to the boat for a proper inspection. Not having the boat at home now is one of the issues when trying to dream up a fix!

I think if I can fit the ply patach this is my preferred choice, but it may just be too difficult to manage, given the location of the fix. The epoxy putty wodge idea came to me as I was cutting a test piece of ply using the plans to try to figure out the internal shape of the hull.

Here in UK there is modelling epoxy putty but I am not sure if it is 'marine grade'. if anyone knows of a suitable product for this job, I'm all ears!

Thanks

Andy

 

   

RE: Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

I had the same issue (minus the screws pulling out). This year I bit the bullet and performed the surgery through the access hole.  I don't have a picture handy, but I shaped a block of hardwood (I think it was cherry, but it probably doesn't matter) to fit fairly closely underneath the seat, then glued it with thickened epoxy.  

With the boat upside down the procedure is not too complicated as gravity is on your side - the glue will drip towards the stern, as will the wood plug. The hardest bit was sanding the inside with sandpaper attached to a stick.

Mihai

RE: Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

   Thanks Mihai,

The rudder problem was less of a fix than I had thought. I used some longer/fatter screws and there was plenty of purchase in the ply as I put them in. I have fitteed them with a drop of marine sealant to prevent water ingress and hopefully this shoudl be good to go.

I have now added new control lines to alow the drop rudder extension to be haulded up for a shallow beach landing and and launch. The rudder is then dropped using a length of 5mm shock chord which can be tightened off in the jam cleat to ensure that the rudder does not bounce or get dragged by the current when we are underway.

See the mods here:

RE: Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

   Sorry I am not sure I loaded the picture properly...

 

 

RE: Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

 OK last go at trying to post a picture on thie forum - frankly there should be an option to preview the post...

 

RE: Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

 Post  pictures to photobucket.com and just post the link here. 

RE: Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

   Would love to see your picture(s).  Did you see the link above:

Click here for help on including photos in your forum posts.  

Also, sometimes it works to just right click on the picture, copy and paste, but not always

One more...if your picture(s) is in a Picassa type photo album sometimes you can provide the link directly to that picture(s).

 

RE: Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

   Yes I have read the blurb, but nothing I do seems to work. I have put the pics on Flickr, but there are no links there to images that end in .jpg as far as I can see. I never use these photo sharing sites as a general rule and tend to archive images on our servers.

One last try using an i-Frame.

This forum needs the option to preview and edit posts BTW

 

<iframe src="https://www.flickr.com/photos/126091367@N07/19489924315/in/datetaken/player/" width="900" height="1600" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe>

 

 

RE: Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

  Have finally worked out the best way to post pics (using Dropbox actually). Here are pics to my mods to the fixed rudder. Note the cunning bungee which does a good job at holding the rudder pintles and stops them popping out.

The uphaul on the drop rudder extension works a treat and the bungee to draw the rudder down is great and can be tightened to ensure the drop rudder stays down when we reach warp speed...

All good...


RE: Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

   Well we finally launched and sailed my Skeery yesterday and like many others my rudder keeps popping out. Distrubing to say the least. I noticed that the fellow Reinhold had a special set of gudgeons (two on the boat two on the rudder) and a long rod with a nut on top that seemed to solve this problem. Does anyone know where one can get that set up?

I also like the fix for pulling the swivel part of the rudder up. I'll have to incorporate that.

I also need to apply the fix to keep the center board down.

Other than that she is a sweet sailing craft.

Otto

RE: Skerry Rudder Gudgeon

  My Bugee trick (in the photo) above works a treat and the rudder has held firm in every outting since. The bunge is just tied off on the bottom pntele and then clipped over the top pintle. The tension keeps the rudder from popping out.

I took the boat out in quite heavy swell on the river yesterday and the rudder stayed intact. I would suggest this solution.

As for the dagger board riding up under way, I have this problem too, but only in light wind. Most of the time the force of the water keeps the rudder in place. A bungee with clips either side of the cenral seat may stop it riding too much.

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