1974 Oday rudder spring stop

Sep 20, 2006
367
Oday 20 Seneca Lake
I have a small piece of flat bent stainless steel attached to the back of the rudder which acts as a spring stop to keep the rudder from coming off the gudgeons. I did not see one on D&R's site. Does anyone know if this is original or something a previous owner made. If original, any idea other than D&R where I might find one?
 
Nov 9, 2012
2,500
Oday 192 Lake Nockamixon
I had similar on my Boston Whaler Harpoon 4.6. They are not particularly trustworthy, though when I took the Harpoon out for capsize drills, the spring stop worked. Nevertheless, I still tied a tether to the headstock, just in case. You could probably use any old piece of thin SS tang stock to make one.

My 192 has a hole drilled in the top pintle, and a hairpin cotter pin goes through the hole to keep the rudder in the gudgeons. If your isn't set up like that, you might consider doing that. Not that drilling the pintle will be easy, but eventually...

For my Force 5, I replaced the notoriously weak spring rod with a 3/8" 316SS hex bolt, and drilled a hole for hairpin cotter pin. Lemme tell you how much of a PITA that is using a hand drill... Just bought an 8" bench top drill press from Harbor Freight. Next time I need to do something like that, it should be much easier with the press, running on slow speed of course.

Just for fun, here are pics of my Harpoon spring after I bent it all to shit while simultaneously wrecking the trailing bottom corner of my rudder (don't ask.:eek:):



And here is is after I went to town with a couple pairs of pliers:



And finally after I beat on it with a flat hammer against my vise anvil, then put a bit of bend to the angle:



It worked fine after all that. Let's not talk about the fiberglass repairs I hadda do to the rudder... :badbad:
 
Jun 2, 2004
1,923
Oday Day Sailer Wareham, MA
Yes, that rudder stop was stock, original to the boat or at least it is a replacement for the original stock setup.
I'd try a good shop that sells small-sailboat parts, also I think that original was made by Schaefer Marine and they might still make them.
That said, I agree with Brian S. those spring-clips weren't ideal for this function, I'd prefer to have a machine shop drill a small hole in the upper pintle pin for a cotter-pin (or a hitch-pin might be better) that will be better at keeping the rudder in place. D&R does sell a good little pin for the Day Sailer rudder and that works great on my DS II. Here is a pic of the upper pintle fro a DS and the hitch-pin supplied by D&R. I would think a similar idea could be used on the 20. I guess this doesn't really show the drilled hole too well?
 

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Nov 9, 2012
2,500
Oday 192 Lake Nockamixon
I bought my hairpin cotter pin as Sunbird has pictured from McMaster-Carr.