Gudgeon Mounting Bolts for Rudder

[Monheganlover]

I have '76 Catalina and am getting a little water in the bilge. It is probably rain water that has saturated the flotation. I sponge it up and, next day, there is some more which means the foam is probably holding water and releasing it. But, I have also read that the gudgeon mounting bolts can leak over time. Since mine are original, I am thinking of replacing them.

Here is what may be a dumb question. I have seen the gudgeon fastener kit on Catalina Direct's site. And also looked at the gudgeon access kit which they say you can use to "access the top gudgeon mounting bolts from inside the cockpit. " Which is all well and good, but, how do you access the mounting bolts for the lower gudgeon?

Is the lower gudgeon mounted directly into solid fiberglass? If not, how do you get at the bolts?

 

[$tingy Sailor]

It's pretty cramped, but you can get to the nuts underneath the cockpit sole if you crawl under the port cockpit seat either from inside the cabin or down through the lazarette.

 

[CaptDon01]

Not sure how far back this mounting method went at the factory, but on several boat's that I've changed and installed the heavy-duty gudgeons with the plastic bearings, the factory glassed in some brass stock that is tapped for the gudgeon mounting bolts. So there is a chance you could possibly un-screw the old, and re-install the new.

Don

 

[George W]

Not sure how far back this mounting method went at the factory, but on several boat's that I've changed and installed the heavy-duty gudgeons with the plastic bearings, the factory glassed in some brass stock that is tapped for the gudgeon mounting bolts. So there is a chance you could possibly un-screw the old, and re-install the new.

Don

My 1970 #199 were just "thru bolted" with realitivly small ss bolts. Previous owner had installed the access port for the top gudgeon access. I did not see evidence of any glassed in plates, so we can assume they did that later than mine.