Affixing A Gudgeon

[Pete Connors]

I have a 1960 Old Town Otca that was built with a mast step, but no rudder or gudgeons. I've been happily paddle steering it, but I'm interested in adding a rudder. I picked up a 1940's Old Town rudder from Bob Ross that had a yoke and pintels along with a pair of gudgeons. Looking through the photos in the threads, I see a mix of peened rivets and what look like screw or bolt heads. Are folks using rivet nuts in these installs or are these wood screws? Thanks for entertaining my naive question.

I attached a photo from Benson Gray to show the hardware I'm talking about.

 

[Dave Osborn]

I’ve always used 3/16 copper rod and peened it with a ball peen hammer and clinching iron as a backer.
Got the rod at Ace Hardware.

 

[Benson Gray]

Any of these options can work but the factory originally used peened rivets so this is what I have done on my sailing canoes. A good piece of large gauge copper wire works well if you can't find appropriate rivets. A brass rod is not a good option. (Don't ask me why I know this to be true.) The book at http://www.wcha.org/store/canoe-rig-essence-and-art covers this and more in some detail. The comments at https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/flaw-in-my-collection-resolved.3855/#post-19723 may help if you aren't sure how to best line it all up. Good luck,

Benson

 

[Pete Connors]

Thanks Dave & Benson! I think my eyes were betraying me. I'll pick up some copper nails and roves from Jamestown or Faering (apparently only a short drive from the in-laws). I have Canoe Rig on the coffee table and Benson's suggestion about how to line up the gudgeons based on finding the extreme end printed out (that was another question I had going into this). I think I might also borrow Benson's idea of putting the rudder pulleys on the leeboard bracket.

Thanks again