Still away - rudder gudgeons and pintles

The second round of stainless steel 316 fittings have arrived back from the fabricators, still learning more maritime terminology.  I thought a gudgeon was a type of Australian native fish but turns out I was wrong.  Took me a few checks of the plans while I was getting quotes to confirm in my mind which were the gudgeons and which were the pintles.  Hopefully I get it right.

Below are two shots of the rudder from way back at the start.  Two pintle fittings go on the top where the hardwood bracing each side is and one narrow one down near the base plate about where the red part of the hammer is.

Below is a photo from the side showing up the top of the rudder with the hardwood bracing each side.  20mm Australian hardwood each side with 40mm wood in between.  The hole is for the tiller to slot into.



This is a shot of all the fittings.  Pintles on the left with the wide (80mm gap) up top and the narrow (40mm gap) one at the bottom.  Gudgeons on the right, two the same which will sit on the outside of the transom through bolted with hardwood pad on the inside and the large one at the bottom which is bolted onto the aft end of the keel.

Below is one of the wide ones close up.  8mm sides, 10mm on the end where two 10mm attachment pieces are.

And the narrow one, same plate thicknesses.  Note the holes for through bolting attachment to the rudder and the hole in the attachment.  More on that in a minute.

Below is a close up of the transom gudgeon.  Note holes for bolting through the transom into the cockpit and the smaller holes in the attachment pieces.

Hopefully the below will make them clear.  The mounting tabs on the pintle to the left are just smaller spaced and slide inside the gudgeon.  The smaller hole in the gudgeon is drilled at 16mm for the bolt.  The larger holes in the pintle allow the bolt with a nylon bush to sit inside which has a 20mm outside dimension.  The slightly wider again nylon base of the bush sits inside the bottom of the gudgeon allowing the rudder to slide on it rather than metal on metal.

Finally the bottom keel gudgeon looking from the side and slightly below.  Note that edges to the right of the picture flare out slightly to fit the hardwood keel on the yacht.  All 10mm as this will be the strongest part of the attachment and hopefully take the weight if I mount it correctly.

And one from slightly above looking aft towards where the rudder will be.  Imagine the space filled with kwila hardwood that tapers from 80mm wide in to a 60mm wide hardwood end cap.

That's probably all for a while.  Excitement is building, for me anyway!

Still away, but got some fittings

I'm still away from the build working, but have managed to get a few fittings fabricated so I feel like I am still getting stuff done.  Six months and counting to resuming regular scheduled construction/painting.

The original design included plans for having various fittings cast.  I decided that I would take advantage of being overseas to have them fabricated in stainless steel (316).  Below is a shot of the ones produced to date, across the top you have six chainplates with backing plates to match.  Underneath on the left is the stem fitting and then three whisker stay plates (I didn't take a close up of those, they are 6mm.

The chainplates (one close up below) are all 8mm, you can see the triangular shaped gusset underneath to support the right angle step out then up.  This space is where the gunwale hardwood sits (two holes for attachment) and the very top hole is where the rigging attaches, note the slight bend inwards about 4cm up.  Five bolt holes to go through the bottom of the fitting and a hardwood pad into the hull, then a shaped backing hardwood piece on the inside of hull to spread the load and the stainless backing plate last.  The hardwood pieces will need to match the curves of the hull to give flat surfaces for both the chainplate and backing plate to sit on.

 

The stem fitting is shown below looking from the front side which attaches to the forward side of the stem.  The front, rear and flat section on top are all 10mm, the upright plate in the middle is 8mm and goes through the bowsprit.

 

Below shows the inside face which will be on the inside of the stem under the bowsprit in the anchor well, where there is a small lower deck section in front of frame one.

Below is from the side showing the 8mm upright piece that goes through a slot cut in the bowsprit.  Note the holes for attaching rigging at the top edge.  Note also the slope to match the one already cut on top of the stem according to the plans.

 

More fittings underway for the rudder, I'll post pictures when I get them.  Looking forward to getting back underway soon!

Waiting for my return - pictures

Thought I would drop a few pictures in for those who stop by to check in vain for progress.  See the previous post, but I am thinking about things I can work on remotely such as a wiring plan.

Below is a picture from the port side:

A close one showing the portholes just sitting in place to keep out unwanted visitors:

And a shot of the painted main hatch garage.  I put the grab handles on the side with epoxy and some massive 14 gauge screws.  It is easy to reach leaning in from the sloping side decks and avoided any holes through the cabin roof.  We will see how it goes but feels solid so far.

More news when I have some!

2017 - still on a building break

Just a quick update after a few concerned questions about the build.  I'm currently working away from home, so no progress to speak of other than building up some boat dollars and a lot of motivation to get this thing in the water.

The portholes are sitting in place blocking any unwanted visitors making a home in there, I'll let you know when we resume.  May be able to squeeze in some work on one of my longer breaks at home in a month or two.