The Rudder

You may find it hard to believe that there are hundreds of ways to make and hang a rudder, and about as many ways it can go wrong-to bind, or break, or jam, or fall off, or twist the stern of the boat out of shape. In some ways, the rudder is the most complicated and important part of your new vessel. I'll attempt to describe, with the help of Sam's drawings, how I have made and installed just two types of rudder, as I have done them dozens of times. (I'll skip the pop-ups, the balanced spades, the Viking steering-oars, the aimable jets-all of which simply move the stern of the boat sideways, and aim the bow where you want it to go.)  The first type, then, is the classic inboard rudder. It is hung on the stern post, usually with a jog in its forward edge to make room for a propeller; the stock enters the counter through a watertight tube and stuffing box. It is con­trolled by tiller, or quadrant with cables, or one of the various worm-gear, rack-and-pinion, or hydraulic push-and-pull mechanisms. In olden times (before I started making rudders, that is), this stock might have been made of wood, an upward continuation of the rudder's leading edge, housed and turning in a planked-up rudder trunk or port. I have rebuilt such an installation in elderly Friendship sloops and catboats (and have listened to bitter complaints about how the damned ports always leaked), but I am happy that we later builders, with access to better and cheaper metal, have man­aged to do a neater and possibly more reliable job in our little boats. Bear with me, then, while I try to describe my way of building, hanging, and controlling this inboard rudder.  Shaping the rudder stock (inboard)  I usually start operations by making a skel­eton pattern, showing the location and angle of the propeller shaft, the propeller aperture, the exact angle of the jog in the stock, and the locations of the pintles. All this information is marked on or tacked to a straight lath that represents the forward edge of the rudder-to-be (see Figure 19-1).  The first and apparently most formidable job is to shape that stock-either by making a pattern, and casting it in bronze (as we've done several times, in agony and at vast expense), or by bending a good piece of propeller shaft to the correct angle. The latter is the simple and, if I may say so, the right way to do it. A good bronze propeller shaft (we usually managed to find a secondhand one, cheap) is a reliable piece of gear, while a casting is sometimes suspect; I've known of a couple of rudder stocks that wrung off at a bad moment.  So-to bend this shaft to the exact angle you clamp it atop something solid, with the short end overhanging the edge of the platform. Arrange a stop to catch the end when it droops to the proper angle, and proceed to heat it at the bending point with a big, blue flame from your borrowed torch. Mind not the color of the heat, nor grow impatient and doubting. Maybe apply a very light pressure out on the end, and wait until it droops gently of its own sweet will, and stops just where you planned. Leave it to cool. Drill it precisely fore-and-aft for the ½-inch bolts. (This is best done on a drill press, of course, and the holes will require some tapered reaming and countersinking to take the forged heads of the bolts.) You will rejoice at the thought that the dogleg in this rudder stock handles the main part of the turning load, and the bolts are thus relieved of a great deal of st