Rudder downhaul line

[Brian S]

How does one go about replacing the rudder downhaul line for a 192?

That line goes in, and I don't seen a corresponding hole for it to come out, or be knotted, etc.

I see what appears to be a plugged up hole on the side of the rudder blade, below where the line goes in. Is this supposed to be drilled out, revealing the terminus of the line? Surely this line has been replaced before - I mean, can this be the original line from '85?

Thanks,
Brian

 

[Wooden Shoe]

How does one go about replacing the rudder downhaul line for a 192?

That line goes in, and I don't seen a corresponding hole for it to come out, or be knotted, etc.

I see what appears to be a plugged up hole on the side of the rudder blade, below where the line goes in. Is this supposed to be drilled out, revealing the terminus of the line? Surely this line has been replaced before - I mean, can this be the original line from '85?

Thanks,
Brian

Sounds like you rudder is similar to the 222. If so the hole that appears to be plugged is actually the other end of the line. It is knotted so it will not pull through. You can pull it out through that access hole, cut off the knot and replace the line, knotting the new one to fit into the hole tightly.

 

[Brian S]

Ok, thanks Wooden Shoe.

I guess I just need to get a knife and start digging in that plug looking area. I was pretty sure that's how it worked, but I don't have any kind of plug over the knot in my wood GP14 rudder, or the fiberglass rudder or centerboard on my Harpoon...

Brian

Sounds like you rudder is similar to the 222. If so the hole that appears to be plugged is actually the other end of the line. It is knotted so it will not pull through. You can pull it out through that access hole, cut off the knot and replace the line, knotting the new one to fit into the hole tightly.

 

[Joe11688]

I think that Brian is right about that. If the 192 rudder blade is like the 222 tip up blade, all you need to do is pop the plug out on the side of the leading edge of the blade and you'll see the pendant line tied with a figure eight stopper knot.
You also may want to look into adding a 12" X 3/16" piece of bungee cord to this pendant line wtih a hog ring crimped to it. This bungee adds tension to the pendant line when the blade tips up, whereby keeping the line from getting caught between the blade and the inside of the rudder head. This line would need to attach to the next bolt on the rudder head, just under the tiller. The tiller on your rudder head sits on the bolt just under it and hold it up. The line needs to be secure to the next bolt down on your rudder. I have a different type of a tiller with stops that I put in on each side of the rudder head to support my tiller. So you really can't go by my picture.

 

[Brian S]

Joe, I see what you're getting at with the bungee. It's in-line with the downhaul line. I will have to examine in detail on my own rudder. I think I also see that I may have a problem putting a cleat on top of the tiller intended to be used as an uphaul line, because that may cause the tiller to pivot up under the weight of the rudder blade. Again, I will have to look at this. As I recall from my 3 or 4 sails at the end of the season, the tiller didn't appear to pivot up. On my friend's Montgomery 23, it does pivot up, and he hooks it to the backstay, which is nice for opening up the cockpit for entertaining. I will certainly figure out this aspect, as I plan to spend lots of time in the cockpit grilling dinner!

As for the plug in the side of the rudder blade, last night I went digging. And then I went drilling. I found it relatively hard, hence the drilling, and then rubbery underneath that. I think a PO had used 3M 4000 to fill that hole - there was no plug per se. After I had the 1/2" hole drilled, and pulled some of the rubbery stuff out with needlenose pliers, I did find the tail of the line, and the knot which I expected to be there... I took a small sanding drum for my Dremel tool, and cleared the hole back to fiberglass.

I'm considering taking some thin plastic, and cutting a circle of the same diameter as the hole, with maybe 3 tabs slightly shorter than the depth of the hole sticking out from the circle. These will be bent down, creating legs. I will stuff this into the hole, providing a surface lower than the face of the blade, upon which I can smear 3M 4200 or 4000 or something... Or I should just call Rudy and see if he's got rudder plugs!

Joe, why did you convert your tiller to an external mount with SS tangs? Your stops exist to support this configuration. Just wondering.

Thanks,
Brian

 

[Brian S]

I spoke with Rudy at D&R, he has 1" plugs, but not the 3/4" plugs that used to be used for plugging the line hole in the rudder. He said it's the same plug as used for the headliner? they don't make them anymore. Anyway, I'll probably do my plan to create a shelf, and seal it in with 4000.

Brian

 

[Joe11688]

Brian,
When I first got my boat I didn't like the tiller that came with it. I needed a thicker tiller so that I could mount a rudder blade hold-up line and clam cleat. I think I had an autopilot back then and needed to mount the tiller pin for it.

I had a tiller that came off a Sanibel 17 I had previously owned and I used that until it split in half on me during a race. After that, I went out and bought the used tiller that I have now, off Rudy. He told me that it came off an O'Day 25.
Luckily it fit over my rudder head but the bottom of the tiller would have been rubbing against the transom because of the lack of space needed at the top of the rudder head. So I lowered the pintles on the rudder head to the lower holes and bored two new holes for the pintles. By lowering the pintles, I was able to raise the rudder about 1" higher. Rudy told me that the 1" height would be negligible as far as steering is concerned. This worked fine but I needed to install two stops on each side of the rudder head to keep the tiller up off the top of the transom.
This gave me just enough space for the tiller and the 3/6" rudder blade control line.

 

[srojoetoo]

plugs

I spoke with Rudy at D&R, he has 1" plugs, but not the 3/4" plugs that used to be used for plugging the line hole in the rudder. He said it's the same plug as used for the headliner? they don't make them anymore. Anyway, I'll probably do my plan to create a shelf, and seal it in with 4000.

Brian

Check your local harware store at the screws bins. I found a 3\4 nylon plug, perfect fit.

tom c
OD222
Mio Amore

 

[Brian S]

Update, I made a "shelf" cut out of thin polyethylene. It looks like the tripod thingy they put in pizza boxes, and I happened to cut it out of milk jug. I used Illustrator to draw a circle same diameter as the hole, and drew thin 3/4" rectangles oriented like 3 spokes from the circle. I printed it out for a test, and used that as a pattern to cut out the plastic. Bent the legs down to make the tripod. Then, I filled in the resulting shallow hole with 3M 4000. Here's hoping the bottom paint will stick to it! Should be touching up my waterline bottom paint today, and I'll get the plug while I'm doing that.

Brian

 

[Famos_Amos]

I'm currently fixing the same issue on my 222 rudder, along with some others. Instead of trying to "fix the hole" that had been re-drilled/worn down to the core, I opted to clean it out and refill it with some westsystem and install a SS eye. This way, I can run the rudder line down to the eye instead of knotting it up in the hole.

I also had a problem with the rudder extending "past center", and the upper-most point of the rudder blade was rubbing on the bottom of the hull in a spot. It looked like the PO had installed a bolt through the rudder near the top that would stop the extension when the bolt contacted the aluminum plates. Over time, this bolt's hole had elongated, resulting in the rudder over-extending. To fix this, I added some padding to the inside of the aft wooden spacer, so that the flat portion at the top of the rudder rests against that now instead of the bolt. I'll take some pics if anyone's interested.

 

[Brian S]

Amos, I'm figuring on getting some vinyl tubing from the hardware store, slitting it, and putting it over the headstock spacer that the tiller rests on. It'll help protect all my new varnish on it. So I can understand how your rudder head has worn against things.

Brian