[Rhodes22-list] Rudder Askew

[Peter Nyberg]

Roger,

I’m guessing the Dynamic Equilibrium does not have a General Boats outboard motor lift on her transom.  This is a pretty large structure that runs from just above the waterline to the top of the aft cockpit combing, and makes any horizontal measurement across the transom somewhere between difficult and impossible.  

I was able to find the center point at the bottom of the transom that you describe.  I found that by keeping the bottom of the boat in view and sighting down the ‘V’ to the keel, the low point of the transom was pretty easy to identify with reasonable accuracy (but probably not within a millimeter).

Since I can’t identify a usable upper center point, I think I’ll have to settle for using a vertical line from the lower center point as my transom centerline.  Given that I’ve leveled the boat port-to-starboard across the cockpit combings, I think a vertical line is as close to ‘right’ as any straight line on a boat can be.

Based on this, I find that my upper gudgeon is 3/16” to starboard and my lower gudgeon is 1/4” to port. 

I haven’t had time to give this a lot of thought, but I’m thinking of calling the upper gudgeon ‘close enough’, and shifting the lower gudgeon 7/16” to starboard.

—Peter  

> On May 29, 2020, at 7:57 PM, ROGER PIHLAJA <roger_pihlaja at msn.com> wrote:
> 
> Peter,
> 
> Whew, this is new one!  The thing about boats is there no such thing as square or plumb.  Everything is all faired curves and angles.  I guess what I would do is determine the midpoint of the transom on a line from gunnel to gunnel.  From this midpoint, draw a line down to the center of the curve at the bottom of the transom.  This curve has ~3” Radius and the center of it should be easy to determine.  Both gudgeons should be located on this transom centerline no matter if this line is exactly vertical or not.  As far as what the acceptable tolerance for being on the centerline is, you would have to ask Stan.  However, I would think it would be very helpful for him to have your measurement.  I can’t wait to hear the result of your measurement.
> 
> Good luck!
> 
> Roger Pihlaja 
> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone