I have a feeling that if there's a weakness in the job I've done, it's at the ends of the tubes, where I'm relying on globs of G-flex epoxy to hold them in place. In trimming the tube ends at the stern I tried to leave as much of that epoxy there as I could while giving the rudder bracket room to move freely. I used a slicing motion with a sharp chisel to cut off the excess tubing:
Here's how the tubes look post-trimming:
I also used the chisel to cut away the excess tubing up in the cockpit:
Not the most sightly things, I know, but they should be functional.
And now, all that was left was to re-rig the rudder. I got out the new rudder lines that the nice folks at Epic headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina, sent me, and was quickly reminded of what a chore it is to feed them through the tubes. I finally had success with Oscar Chalupsky's vacuum cleaner method. The first challenge was mounting my vacuum cleaner's hose to the tube ends up in the cockpit; I finally managed it with the help of a couple of spring clamps:
The top clamp is holding the hose to the boat's foot strap, and the bottom clamp is holding a scrap of minicell that acts as a seal to concentrate all the suction through the rudder-line tube. Sure enough, I tuned the vacuum on and fed the rudder line into the stern end of each tube, and it worked, though it took a few tries. The line would snag from time to time, and I'd have to pull it out a little and re-feed it. But eventually the line emerged up in the cockpit:
O praises be!!! Then I tied the lines off at the rudder post:
...and fed them through the pedals and attached them to the tension adjuster:
I'd forgotten how tedious this process is--getting the pedals adjusted the way I like them, getting the right tension in the lines, trimming off the excess line without cutting away too much... whew. I'm glad to have this job done.
Of course, I can't truly pronounce the job done until I've put the boat in the water and paddled it. I already have one worry: the rudder is a bit sluggish in its response to the pedals. The reason is that there's some slack in the tubes where they detour around the seat bucket. I really couldn't avoid this problem because of my limited reach from the hole I cut in the boat. I plan to paddle the boat tomorrow and I'll know then whether this is an issue I can live with.
Anyway, I thank everybody who has read this series of posts and I hope this information will be useful as you strive for a satisfying relationship with your boat.
The top clamp is holding the hose to the boat's foot strap, and the bottom clamp is holding a scrap of minicell that acts as a seal to concentrate all the suction through the rudder-line tube. Sure enough, I tuned the vacuum on and fed the rudder line into the stern end of each tube, and it worked, though it took a few tries. The line would snag from time to time, and I'd have to pull it out a little and re-feed it. But eventually the line emerged up in the cockpit:
O praises be!!! Then I tied the lines off at the rudder post:
...and fed them through the pedals and attached them to the tension adjuster:
I'd forgotten how tedious this process is--getting the pedals adjusted the way I like them, getting the right tension in the lines, trimming off the excess line without cutting away too much... whew. I'm glad to have this job done.
Of course, I can't truly pronounce the job done until I've put the boat in the water and paddled it. I already have one worry: the rudder is a bit sluggish in its response to the pedals. The reason is that there's some slack in the tubes where they detour around the seat bucket. I really couldn't avoid this problem because of my limited reach from the hole I cut in the boat. I plan to paddle the boat tomorrow and I'll know then whether this is an issue I can live with.
Anyway, I thank everybody who has read this series of posts and I hope this information will be useful as you strive for a satisfying relationship with your boat.
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