Pintles sealed and fitted

All the pintles have now been sealed and permanently fitted. The lower port Pintle needed a spacer. The alignment is now pretty good.
That was done yesterday.

I fitted the gudgeon fittings to the rudder boxes today and hung the rudders, so in the next couple of days we will be fabricating a new tiller system.

Pintle spacers for alignment

I had to work this morning but I got some stuff done this afternoon.

I have replaced the two 3mm spacers made of unpainted aluminium on the port lower Pintle with a sealed, painted timber spacer - also slightly tapered to align properly.

Both top pintles required a slight change of angle to align with the lower ones. Prior to Sikaflexing tailored pieces of credit card (not an active one - I hope), the top Pintle pointed at the hull on the lower pintle instead of the lower pin. My measurements indicated the misalignment was outside the ability of the Pintle and gudgeon arrangement to compensate.

I'll permanently mount the pintles tomorrow morning. Progress - hooray!

Pintle Alignment Tool

This will help with making the pintles point in the same direction. I'll show it in action soon.

Aquacote sticks to Sikaflex291

YES - Aquacote sticks to Sikaflex291. It looks pretty permanent to me but I guess time will tell.
No pictures today but I have finished painting the rudder boxes and am now ready to permanently mount the pintles (bedded with Sikaflex291) then mark and drill the gudgeon mounting holes in the rudder boxes.

Rudder and Transom Progress

To level the transom height I bought an 8mm x 30mm x 2400mm piece of hardwood from Bunnings (hardware store) and carefully planed it down to 7mm. I was surprised how successful it was. It's more even than the transom that it'll mount on anyway.

I epoxied it on than gave it two coats of thinned epoxy, then painted it. It looked a bit ordinary where the epoxy had dribbled out so I trimmed away the excess epoxy and levelled each side with Sikaflex 291 - that may have been a mistake as I have to paint it again... Does Aquacote go over Sikaflex 291? I'll report back.

Almost ready for the main traveller.

While we are looking at the picture above, I'll be adding another tiller pivot support above the tiller slot. What is there at the moment seems a bit fragile. I have already bought longer bolts (see previous post).

The rudder pintles have had all the inner holes filled. I used hardwood dowel that were about 6mm too short, epoxied in then filled via a syringe with masking tape over to get a smooth finish to the transom.

I also moved the lower starboard pintle up about 9mm.

The rudder boxes have had all the gudgeon holes filled and the boxes have been painted but need a final coat.

I set myself back a bit when after test mounting the rudders to get the height correct. I found the port rudder fouled the right side of the port hull. I have ground away some timber to make it foul a bit less. It is now similar to the starboard rudder box which already had been tapered at the lower edge.

It originally had two 3mm aluminium (unpainted) spacers but when I tried that it caused the pivots to bind. I'll probably get away with one 3mm spacer.

The starboard rudder box and rudder. You can see the taper top left of the box (as it is viewed).

The rudders are too narrow for the rudder boxes (or the other way round). I made up four 180mm spacers from 1mm thick flexible PVC. It still isn't enough so I'll cut another four. I originally bought some storage containers to cut up but they shattered rather than cut when I tried cutting them with tin snips.

I have also made up two "curtains" from the same PVC sheet for the cockpit storage areas. I couldn't use the sliding hatch trick Don showed me as I have access portals in the way. This should keep out the rain (and leaves).

These will be held on with 20mm x 6mm mouldings at the top edge - just above the openings.

I have also been crawling around inside the hulls and cleaned out all the dust and rubbish.

Stainless Steel Screws for Christmas

To keep the transom reinforcing project going over Christmas I have ordered (from Bolts Nuts Screws Online):

Product	Price	Qty	Subtotal
316 STS CSK PHIL: #10 X 3.1/2	0.85	10	8.50
316 STS CSK PHIL: #10 X 3	0.73	10	7.30
316 STS PAN PHIL: #10 X 1/2	0.14	10	1.40
316 STS CSK PHIL: #12 X 1/2	0.22	10	2.20
316 STS PAN PHIL: #12 X 5/8	0.20	10	2.00

Essentially it's enough stainless steel screws to hold the rear traveller down into every layer of timber on the transom - regardless.

The 'I' section traveller (for the main sheet) on the transom is Ronstan I-Beam 19 and is 24mm high.
There is a 7mm gap to the  top piece of timber of the transom.
The top piece of timber is anywhere from 35mm to 25mm high (35mm in the middle - the highest load point).
The lower section of the transom is about 40mm high.

So 24+7+35 = 66mm
To make the screw "bite" all the way to the lower part of the transom my 3 1/2" (or 88mm) screws will give around 22mm of penetration.
I'll use the 76mm screws as the top timber gets thinner.
All screws will be epoxied in. If I ever have to remove it - well I'll cross that bridge...

By the way. The existing screws are 50mm long - losing 30mm before they hit timber. The two I tried this morning are modestly thumb and forefinger tight with traces of silicone on the threads -  and NO NYLON INSERTS. It's stainless steel on aluminium. (There are nylon inserts on the Jib sheets travellers - I have found several sources of them online.)

My next challenge is where to get 7mm deep hardwood about 35-30mm wide.
Hopefully I'll get to that over the Christmas new year break. I've found a couple of timber machinists and custom molding places reasonably nearby. (I only have a manual power plane and I'd have to take 10mm down to 7mm evenly for a couple of meters - not likely - but possible.)

The #12 screws are for the rudder box lower gudgeons where you can't use bolts. (They were 6g countersunk with flat washers and were almost useless).
12g screws are 5.5mm to the outer part of the thread so should hold a lot better.
I got Countersunk (CSK) and Panhead (PAN) just in case one works better than the other. The 5/8" might just fit with a flat washer under them. The rudder box timber is 12mm, the gudgeon 2mm so I'd have to take up another 1.9mm to stop the screw poking through. If if doesn't look right I'll use the 1/2" (I'll check before screwing the 5/8" in).

Rudder box Reduction & Trailer modification

I spent a couple of hours sanding down the rudder boxes at the position where I want to re-mount the gudgeons yesterday. I had to take about 2mm off the width of the boxes to allow the gudgeons to slide on reasonably easily. Once they were sanded back enough I applied two coats of thinned Bote-cote to the now-raw timber - allowing a day in between coats.

The rudder box below is precariously balanced here so as to allow the epoxy to settle into the gaps - see the reason below. I have also marked the gudgeons as to where they will be used as they vary in gap slightly.

I added some filler to the left-over Bote-cote and dribbled it into the un-sealed gaps in the rudder boxes. This apparently should have been fibre-glassed during assembly - but no...

I have sealed about half the gaps so far. It's a good use for left-over Bote-cote each time I mix up a batch.


On other matters - I have been gouging our driveway curb each time I take the boat on and off our property. (I think there is a similar gouge in Vicroads driveway.)
You can see an old and a new gouge here.

The rear double rollers on the trailer had not had the excess taken off the vertical bars so it left gouges every time the trailer went into a dip - like a driveway. It's not good for the trailer or boat when the trailer gets hung up on the curb either.  I'm REALLY hoping that I don't need the rollers to be adjusted up!

Rear right removed and cut down (with hacksaw - about 15 minutes each bar).

 Cut-down rear right.

I did the right hand side a couple of weeks ago but I could not get the left side off this morning (no matter how much cajoling I did with my hammer) so I took to it with the angle grinder and a cut-off wheel. I painted it in situ.
It was a lot quicker - but noisier and pretty fiery. I carefully figured the angle for the spark trail so as not to harm the boat. Sorry no pictures as no-one else was home.

Pintle Mount Shock

I have been a bit time poor for the past few weeks - that should change near Christmas, but I managed to get my phone (camera) into the buoyancy chambers that have the top pintle mount backing plates in them.
Oh dear...

The port side

The starboard side

Pine!!! He almost missed the backing plate too...

I removed the bolts (and pintle) from the starboard side (I can't do the port without someone to hold the spanner) and tried to move the pine but it is solidly glued (epoxied) on. I haven't tried REALLY hard to move it yet - I'm trying to get advise on this. At this point I think the path of least damage is to retain the pine. This area is well above the waterline with the floor that you can see on the same level as the cockpit floor - probably 600mm above the water. The hull-beds are below this chamber so it should never see water - pine should be OK - yes?

Keep in mind that I can't see what I'm doing  - the pictures make it look simple to get access but that is via a 6" round access hatch (port side shown below). It'll be "feel your way".

My plan for the starboard side is to place another piece of 50mm x 19mm pine with and 'L' shape cut out of it around the corner near the bolts and (Bote-cote with thickener) glue it to the existing pine and the transom. The reason I'll use more pine is to keep the "squashability" the same.
Then I'll coat the whole lot on port and starboard with thinned epoxy (I'll pre-coat my new piece too).

I will fill and seal the inner two bolt holes then, when I refit the pintles, I will only use the two outside bolts with oversize washers that will span the existing and new parts of the backing plate. I'm reasoning here that two 1/4" Stainless Steel bolts are strong enough for one 8mm pintle mount.

Rudder Changes

Here is a look at the rudder arrangement on our Jarcat. This picture is from the sellers advertisement.

It's not obvious from the picture, but the port (left) rudder is 25mm away from the bottom of the hull when the rudder is fully down. The starboard (right) rudder clears by a massive 50mm. The advise is that this should be about 2mm. As it is now, the rudder boxes will drag in the water and the rudders will collect seaweed and garbage.

The rudder pintles (the pivot pins) are mounted on the transom (the back vertical bit of the boat). The gudgeons - the bits with the hole that drops over the pintle, are mounted on the rudders - more correctly the rudder boxes  (these are the things that the kick-up rudders fold into and are pivoted from).

My plan is to move the gudgeons down on the rudder boxes. The cross-arm connecting the port and starboard rudder boxes and the tiller arrangement will then have to be re-worked. The tiller will end up below the cross-arm - in the picture it's above the cross-arm.

This picture show why the tiller is a "chuck away". It hits you in the kneecap and in no way clears the outboard motor.

Here are the rudder boxes removed from the boat, the gudgeons removed, and the gudgeon mounting holes filled.

To fill the holes, I used 1/4" hardwood dowel cut about 10-12mm shorter than the length of the hole. I squashed one end so it would stay put in the hole equidistantly from each end then I blocked the lower end of the hole with masking tape and filled the hole with slightly thickened epoxy - it took a while for it to dribble down.

In the same picture (click on the picture for a better look) you can see the rudder gudgeons. Another small surprise - two different brands - Ronstan and Riley. The Ronstan (the ones with the flange filled in) were on the starboard rudder box and the Riley on the port. Ronstan (RF905 - no longer available nor is the RF2505) have a 52mm gap (the rudder boxes are 52-53mm) and Riley (RM591) have a 51mm gap (they measure 50mm). There will have to be some sanding and repainting to fit them. I will also place Ronstan on the top and Riley on the bottom - just for symmetry. At least something will be symmetrical- more on that later...

Preliminary checkout and To Do List

Once home and the family and I had checked out the boat, I tarped it up (I had measured the tarpaulin size previously) and waited for the weekend.

On the weekend, Don, a Jarcat guru conveniently living 30 minutes away from me, had a look at the Jarcat. With his help and over the next few weeks I compiled the To Do list:

1. Remove the tiller and discard it. It's way too low and can't steer without hitting either the outboard motor or my knees. It's also built like an afterthought.
2. Remove all the rudder gear and remount the rudders 25mm higher for port and 50mm higher  for starboard. This will either be by moving the Pintle mounts on the transom or moving the gudgeons lower on the rudder boxes.
3. Remove the pintles from the transom, align, seal and remount. They are not aligned correctly. To compensate for this, the top pintle mount has been left "loose" - not OK.
4. Seal the rudder box insides. Apparently they should have been fibreglassed during assembly but the cracks where wood joins wood are clearly visible. I will have to dribble thickened epoxy into the joins. (I have already bought Bote-cote epoxy and a sample pack of Aqua-cote paint).
5. Modify the transom so the motor can tilt. After test fitting the motor we found that it could only tilt when put "hard over".
6. Rework the rudder cross arm height to ensure that the motor in its tilted position clears the rudder cross arm.
7. Remove all tracks from the boat and epoxy the fasteners in. They are only sealed with a tiny bit of silicone currently. The front "Tacktrack" has the job of holding the front mast stay -so it's important it doesn't fail. The Jib tracks and main traveller aren't quite as critical but they should be properly installed.
8. Seal front and rear docking cleats and anchor cleat with Sikaflex 291. Currently they are sparingly sealed with silicone and feel weak. I won't epoxy these in as I may well change them for 6" Stainless Steel if I don't think the current 5 1/2" nylon cleats are strong enough.
9. Cut the rearmost trailer roller mounting down. They extend 150mm below the trailer at the moment. I reckon I have put a gouge in a few places (driveways) going to and fro getting the boat ready.
10. Fit Jib blocks and cam cleats. I'll have second Jib blocks near the cabin as per Don's setup.
11. Once the rudders are back on, build a whole new tiller setup.
12. Extend the chainplates (they hold the mast backstays to the boat). They appear to be the right length but there is only one 3/16" bolt holding them inside the hulls. I think the length below the deck was lost to a slightly higher combing above deck. I will drill the hole out to 6mm and add an extension piece of SS (using that bolt) and more epoxied hardwood to hold it in place. Then another 6mm bolt through the hull. I will tension the join to the main chainplate 6mm bolt when fitting the extension SS.

There's more - and more detail - but that's about the crux of it.