Arrgh Aldo, you have a kick up rudder
Arrgh Aldo, you have a kick up rudderAldo,As you sail the waters of the great Chesapeake bay, I unfortunately assumed you have a standard rudder, as I do, instead of the kick up rudder as you do.This means comparing your pintles with my pintles is like comparing apples with oranges. Your pintles are pins inserted into the upper metal section of your kick up rudder while I have mine welded to straps that attach to the fiberglass rudder itself. Therefore, you just change pins to change your pintles while I must attach a new pintle with straps onto the rudder. Consequently, when I refer to holes not matching up on the pintles, I am referring to the holes in the straps that attach the pintle to the rudder, which, as noted, you do not experience.Nevertheless, I do not know whether your pins are ½ inch or 3/8 inch, as I think Catalina may have used half inch pintles on its kick up rudder while the standard rudder has (or had as I believe newer boats are ½ inch) 3/8 inch pintles.So, if your pins are 3/8 inch, and you want to upgrade to ½ inch, then you obviously need to make some changes to either the rudder head or the pins. For changing just the pins, it appears you would need only make pins that are ½ inch on the part that enters the gudgeons and then 3/8 inch on the part in the rudder head. This I think is a wise course than boring out the holes in the rudder head to accept ½ inch pins.For the gudgeons, I note an article by Dennis Slaton written in 1998 that can be read on the Catalina 22 Fleet 20 web site at the link below. Toward the bottom of this article he notes that the ½ inch upgrade gudgeon holes do not match the original 3/8 inch gudgeon holes. I think his experience is more likely to be with earlier C-22's, unlike Ken’s more recent C-22. While this does support my concern that the upgrade ½ gudgeons holes may not match your holes, you have a kick up rudder that may have ½ inch gudgeons originally and therefore may have a different hole pattern than the 3/8 inch gudgeon. Maybe if Ken Palmer is reading this, he can respond to say whether he has a kick-up or standard rudder and if it has ½ inch pintles originally or not.Further because you have a kick-up rudder and I do not, drawing any conclusions for yourself from my pintle and gudgeon experiences is inappropriate for you. For one thing, your rudder is heavier than mine, so that alone would make the Catalina Direct ½ inch upgrade gudgeons with the derlin inserts a worthy modification.As far as the derlin inserts popping out is concerned, that would only be a serious issue if one removes their rudder at the end of sailing, as I do. Keeping your rudder, standard or kick-up, on your transom at a mooring or slip, is bad practice, I think, as water may penetrate its core. Ship the rudder into the cabin. The inconvenience of installing it every time for a sail is minor compared to having it break while sailing. Catalina Direct readily supplies extra derlin inserts, so if you do get the upgrade from them, I would also order a couple of spare inserts simultaneously and keep them aboard. So Aldo, if you think everything I said in the earlier post is totally useless to you, you’re probably right.The real reason for my removing the Catalina Direct upgrade ½ inch pintles and gudgeons and replacing with 3/8 inch Race Lite pintles and gudgeons is that the ½ inch ones were “too tight”. By this I do not mean too tight for sailing or operating the rudder, as for that they were fine. By “too tight” I mean the rudder did not lift easily off the gudgeons. This was bothersome when I removed the rudder after sailing. Yet more important, this prevented the rudder from rising up and off the gudgeons when the rudder hits something when I am going along with my keel up. I once hit my own mushroom anchor at low tide when maneuvering about with my keel raised. At that time I had on my original 3/8 inch pintles and gudgeons. The rudder lifted up and out of the gudgeons as opposed to breaking something, such as the pins, the gudgeons, or even damaging the transom. Due to this experience, I concluded, after a season with the Catalina Direct upgrade, that whatever benefits I experienced with the upgrade, my need to have the rudder lift up easily superceded these benefits. Therefore, I opted for the 3/8 inch Race Lite pintles and gudgeons that I find let the rudder lift more easily than the Catalina Direct ½ inch pintles and gudgeons.This past spring when I put in my new Race Lite pintles and gudgeons, one year after I installed the Catalina Direct upgrade ½ inch pintles and gudgeons, a joke went around that I replaced my pintles and gudgeons annually wether I needed to or not.Well, Aldo, may fair winds and weather surround you.