Rudder problems

The way that the rudder is hung is fairly elegant. There are pairs of brackets at the top and bottom. These set on matching pairs on the transom. A long brass rod goes through these, holding them together. The tiller goes over the top of the rod and keeps it in place.

The problem is that there is enough play that if the transom hits the bottom then the bottom of the rudder can be lifted up enough to come off of the bottom transom bracket leaving it hanging from the top transom bracket. This puts a lot of strain on the bracket and makes the rudder ineffective.

This happened a couple of times. One was on Lake Monroe. We were launching into a strong wind from a shallow beach. The other time was going to the boat ramp on the Scioto. The river is very shallow there with a deeper channel. We lost the channel, ran aground, and the rudder came loose.

The best solution would be to find a new bronze or brass bracket and mount it on the transom above the bracket on the rudder. This would hold it in place. The alternative would be to make a bracket from sheet brass.

Just one more oversight that makes me wonder how a boat could be around for nearly thirty years and not have this solved. Was it always used in deep water?

Update: After examining the boat I realized that it was built wrong from the beginning. The upper bracket should have been on top, holding the rudder in place.

I thought of an alternative to adding a bracket. If I cut a tube the length of the distance between the brackets and run the holding pin through it, the rod will keep the rudder in place. I think that some off-the-shelf copper tubing will do it.

UPDATE: That's what I did. I had some extra copper pipe sitting around so I cut it to length. This seems like a good solution. The pipe stops the rudder from moving and copper resists water fairly well.

Modifications

A couple of things puzzle me by their absence. When I got the Whitehall it had two small cleats just past the midpoint. I assume that they are meant to control the jib. They are in the right place and they are too small and not well placed for mooring.

I found a couple of slightly larger bronze cleats and mounted them a couple of feet from the stern. These are very useful. When I'm launching it I can use them to tie off the tiller. When I'm mooring to a dock then I can moor to these. I really wonder why the boat never had cleats there before.

The other omission is a quick way to take up the sail. The sail is sprit-rigged. It is fastened to the mast and a boom. A sprit is fastened to the mast with a line called a snouter (don't you love that name). The other end goes into a corner of the sail. The idea is to increase the amount of sail without making the mast longer. It is a very traditional rig.

There did not seem to be a quick way of taking in the sail. I was able to rig up a bunt line. It came with a line that had been spliced into a loop with a bronze block attached. This is the right size to slip over the top of the mast and may have been intended for a bunt line. I ran a line up the mast, through the block, and back down to the tip of the boom. If I need the sail taken in in a hurry I just pull on the line. The boom and sprit pivot up until they are nearly parallel with the mast. Problem solved. I'm using a four-strand rope for this to make it easier to identify. For good measure, I put some marks on it with a red Sharpee pen.

When I am putting the mast up or taking it down I use the bunt line to keep the boom out of the way. There is a cleat on the mast that I tie it to. Once the mast is in place I transfer the bunt line through a block to a cleat on the keel boot. I also added a flagpole that slips over the top of the mast. I then tie the flag to the cleat on the mast.

Whoever did the rigging seems to have been stingy with the rope so the bunt may have been omitted by mistake.

The boat came with cotton twist line. This looks much better on a traditional boat than nylon or other modern line. I bought a lot more cotton twist line. It is pretty cheap. Most of my rigging is 3/16" line which goes through the 1/4 grommets very well. It isn't as strong as nylon but it is still rated at 300 lbs. If anything ever puts that much stress on the line I want it to break. I have some 1/4" and 3/8" if I need anything stronger. My anchor and mooring lines are nylon so I can tell by touch which is rigging and which is mooring.

A Year With A Whitehall

I bought my Whitehall Pulling Boat just a year and a few days ago. I've been posting about it i my pirate blog but I decided that it is separate and should have its own blog.

This is just a getting-started post. I'll just recap the current condition of the boat.

When I got it, it looked like the interior had just had a complete refinishing. It was perfect. Not very likely in a boat built in the 1980s. Also, the rigging wasn't quite right. Some of the lines were too short and none of it had been tied long enough to leave knot marks in the rope. Also, the rope that was used was too big. It was very hard to thread through the grommets.

Plus the trailer needed a lot of work.

At this point I've redone the rigging. Everything works now.

The leather on the oars was poorly done. I replaced the leather on one set and fixed the collar on the other. I also discovered that the leathers were not at the same place on the oars.

Most of the interior wood had been refinished but the teak flooring had not been. I took care of that with some teak oil. It looks much better.

On the negative side, I did put some scratches in the seat. A bit chunk was worn out of one of the oars coming back from Maryland. I filled this in with basswood and putty but you can tell the difference.

Since the boat is in the garage for the Winter, I used some wipe-on polyurethane on the scratches. It helped.

The mast and sprit picked up some scratches from normal use. I used some of the finish on these also and the scratches disappeared.

The boat only came with three oarlocks but a set of spoon oars and a set of sweeps. The oars are non-standard - bigger than most - so most oarlocks are too small. I've used a hammer and anvil to open up some iron ones and I got a pair of bronze horn oarlocks. None of these are perfect.

When I got it, it needed painting. I used traditional oil paint and primer. This seems to have worked fairly well but the keel needs painting again after being beached multiple times on sand and gravel.

The boat has a steel swing keel. The leading edge was rusted when I got it. I sanded it down and painted it with Rustolium but it developed more rust. I will have to try something else over the Winter.

The trailer needed a lot of work. I've replaced the wheels, the springs, the pulley, most of the rollers and the hitch. I still need to rewire it.