RudderCraft.com kick up rudder - anyone have one I can ask Qs about and maybe get pics?

[Paceship.org]

Catalina moved from 3/8" to 1/2" pintles at some point in the manufacturing run, and the switch to 1/2" is a recommended upgrade for earlier boats. I think Gene's boat is recent enough that it came with 1/2", and I swapped mine when I replaced my rudder.

The 1/2" gudgeons are a little oversized and accept a low-friction bushing - as seen in Gene's picture. (I'm too lazy to pull my rudder off now and measure the actual hole diameter in the gudgeon, but something ~0.6").

1) I should really stay out of Catalina stuff and Gene's experience because I know very little about either.

2) I SUPER appreciate Gene sharing his info and proposed solutions. THANK YOU!

3) for funsies (and because it was on my brain), I dropped Gene's image into CAD and sized it at 3/8" (which indicates a 1/2 gudgeon) and at 1/2" (which indicates a 5/16 gudgeon)

4) So far everything RC told me checks out so trust continues for me with them. I wish Gene would have reported his 1/2" failure. If RC position is that it is rare (or none for 1/2") from the reports they get possibly more reports would have them look at it. I've found RC reasonable so far and actually super impressed. And myself as a small after-market parts manufacturer for VW Vanagons I appreciate knowing when things aren't as they should be so I can look at it but If I don't know I can't act or if it seems rare vs. items out there the response is different than if it becomes clear that the occurrences are higher.

5) I SUPER appreciate all y'all's feedback and its great to hear that even with some of the issues the overall consensus is that the RC hydraulic kick-up rudder is a good system.

Sincerely,
Thank you