Attaching a faering's rudder

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

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I thought a few people might be interested in the way a faering's rudder is hung. This boat was on display at Tooradin over the weekend (see the Tooradin Classic Boat Expo (http://www.woodenboat-ubb.com/cgi-bin/UBB/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=001976#000001) thread.) It was rescued from the Norwegian mud and shipped out here by a young Norseman for restoration. He told me he had had the rudder fastenings made from an old drawing, so I assume that this is / was at least a reasonably typical arrangement.

As small-boat rudders should be, this one is easily removable. But because it is hung on a curved sternpost the fastenings are designed differently to those most of us are used to, and I think rather elegantly. There are five components, all parts being made of iron. For want of knowledge of the correct terms and to help with the description of how the system works, I have given the parts these names --

http://www.woodenboatfittings.com.au/public/faering-rudder0.jpg

1. A curved lower CLOSED PINTLE, about a foot long, fastened to the sternpost at top and bottom.

2. A C-shaped OPEN GUDGEON, fastened to the rudder and sliding on the closed pintle.

3. An upper DOUBLE GUDGEON fastened to the sternpost, consisting essentially of two gudgeons with a gap between them, and also fashioned so as to provide a narrow housing against the face of the stem.

4. An UPPER RUDDER GUDGEON which is a loose fit between the two eyes of the double gudgeon.

5. A loose LOCKING PINTLE, a pin-and-plate arrangement, the pin sliding down through the three uppermost gudgeon segments to lock them together, and the plate slotting into the housing on the side of the double gudgeon to keep it in place. (Because this is a loose fitting it is tied off to the vessel, just in case....)

Two key features of the bottom fittings are these --

The closed pintle has a circular cross-section which carries a short (1") flattened segment just below its upper bracket. The open gudgeon ends in a pair of jaws nearly enclosing a circular space of such a size as to provide a loose sliding fit on the closed pintle, and with a width of opening between them as to allow them to slide across the flattened segment of the pintle when oriented at the appropriate angle (which is at right angles to the vessel's centreline.)

The photos show the sequence of steps in attaching the rudder.

First, turn the rudder to the correct alignment to allow the open gudgeon's jaws to fit over the flattened segment of the closed pintle. This photo shows the rudder (held a little high) at the correct orientation.

http://www.woodenboatfittings.com.au/public/faering-rudder1.jpg

Slide the jaws across the flattened portion of the pintle.

http://www.woodenboatfittings.com.au/public/faering-rudder2x.jpg

Allow the rudder to swing into its normal fore-and-aft alignment and to slide down the pintle till it nears the end of its travel.

http://www.woodenboatfittings.com.au/public/faering-rudder4.jpg

Align the three uppermost gudgeon segments and insert the locking pintle between them, sliding its plate down into the housing.

http://www.woodenboatfittings.com.au/public/faering-rudder5.jpg

Finally, insert the tiller into the rudder stock and lock it in place with its wooden fid.

http://www.woodenboatfittings.com.au/public/faering-rudder6.jpg

Because of the narrownesss of the faering's stern, the tiller is of the offset, articulated push-pull type. Although the yoke itself gives only a small moment arm, the curved shape of the rudder provides a type of "servo-assist" to the steering, which is therefore actually quite light.

Mike
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[StevenBauer]

That is so cool Mike. I bought a similar bronze fitting from Classic Marine that Moray and Iain Oughtred worked up for Iain's Elf design. One added feature of the newer design is an extra pintle mounted above the upper one so you can raise the rudder for shallow water sailing/beaching. I'll try to post a picture tonight.

Steven

[StevenBauer]

Here's a sketch of how Moray/Iain's hardware works:

http://www.classicmarine.co.uk/boatlists/images/elflis1.gif

" The left hand one shows the normal position, with the upper rudder gudgeon on
the extension of the pintle. The lower rudder gudgeon is split at its front end,
and is mounted onto the pintle via a reduction in width near the top of the
pintle, and then slid down to its normal position. An "R" clip keeps at the
top of the pintle stops the rudder jumping off.
And when you want to come ashore, you reach back and bring the rudder up to the
upper pintle on the hull. This should give you a bit of steerage, whilst avoiding
damage to the rudder when you hit the beach/putty."

Steven

[ 03-02-2005, 08:37 AM: Message edited by: StevenBauer ]

[Dave R]

That's pretty cool. Thanks for showing it.

One question that you might answer, though. It appears to me that the arm that passes through the rudder is tapered and would be inserted by stuffing the tiller and then the arm itself through the hole. If that is the case, it seems to me that the wedge is on the wrong side of the rudder.

Perhaps the taper I see is due to the angle from which the picture was taken? Is there something on the other side that keeps that arm from backing through the hole?

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

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That set-up sounds a good idea Steven. What's the process for lifting the blade to its upper position? Can it be done while sailing?

Dave, you're quite right, the tiiller is tapered. But it's inserted from port to starboard in that photo nevertheless. There's a shoulder near the end of it which lodges against the rudder stock. (The photo didn't show that at all well though, so I've upgraded it. If you look again now I think you'll see it okay.)

Mike
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[StevenBauer]

I'm not sure, Mike, but I hope so. smile.gif We have to finish building the boat first.

Steven

[gert]

As the owner of a similar boat, this was an issue at construction. This is a very elegant sulution; I understand the bottom and mid parts but I don't get the top :confused: .
Could some one clarify please.

[PAJ]

Dear forumites,
I'm trying to fit the rudder to my faering/dory hybrid. With great help from you, I got some pretty bronze cast fittings from Classic Marine. Now running into the problem of the system biting as trying to pivot about two points on a curved sternpost. Presumably these should be loose fittings. What is recommended - to open out each end of each of the gudgeons, or taper the pintles? Sorry if this is a silly question, but I'm hesitant to take a file to those lovely castings!

BTW: How does a rudder with 3 attachment points pivot on a curved stern as in Steven's picture above - what am I missing?

Thanks
Patrick

[Garth Jones]

Patrick,

I have recently completed an Oughtred Ness Yawl. I bought gudgeons and pintles from Classic Marine as well, but not the nifty three point hardware from the faering (boy that's neat!). What I did to get everything to line up is notch the stem slightly so the hardware is all in line. If I hadn't done that, I would have had to really enlarge the holes, and I didn't want to do that.

http://www.slaughterhousegallery.com/Ness%20Yawl/Images/rudder1thumb.jpg

This is the stern of my boat a few months ago (she's done now!).

Hope this helps.
Garth

[PAJ]

Thanks a lot Garth. That's a neat solution - and a v. pretty boat! I note your pivot points are a lot closer to each other than I have set mine, reducing the curvature anyway - I would have to approximate mine to achieve the same. But from the pictures above, it would seem that a certain amount of slack must be tolerated on some of these faerings to allow the rudder to work.
Patrick

PS just had a look at your website - I'm still in biomedical research, just haven't got the talent to make the jump!