6/6/21 – The rudder is close to 1″ thick and I opted for Stainless Steel hardware that came with 7/8″ Pintles that would only require minor chiseling to fit. First, I mounted the Gudgeons at the two locations that have interior support. The lower gudgeon is backed up by the mahogany block that ties the stern and bottom planks together and the upper gudgeon is in line with the rear seat supports.
Next, I hung the pintles to determine where they would land on the rudder.
Here is the layout on the rudder.
As you can see, the lower pintle needs to be a lot shorter than it actually is.
Looks like I’m going to have to take out my grinder and do some surgery on the lower pintle.
6/7/21 – Back to work on the pintles. The first step is to chisel out the upper pintle.
Then I need to shorten the lower pintle to fit.
I used my cutoff wheel to cut the stainless steel.
Then I chiseled out the lower pintle.
Then I had to drill a new hole in the shorter pintle.
I put in the stainless steel bolts and it fits.
It still needs a little tweaking to swing more freely, but I am going to put off those adjustments until after the painting since I will have to remove all the hardware again to paint anyway.