Stern Tube and Steering

A week or so ago I collected the rudder, the rudder bearings and the stern tube from David O'Shea at Speed Propulsion Pty Ltd. David has been very helpful with advice and has done a good job on the parts he supplied. Here is the rudder. He will make up the propeller shaft when I have found a propeller and I am working on this as I write.

I'm debating whether to fix some plywood to the flat steel place and give the rudder and aerofoil section. At low speeds this probably won't make much difference but it might look nicer. Either way I will paint it to match the hull.

The stern tube was put through the oversize hole in the skeg and keel and lined up carefully using temporary supports for a straight steel bar through the tube. With the tube in place the space between it and the woodwork at both ends was packed with thickened epoxy. When this had set unthickened epoxy was poured into the rest of the space around the tube through a funnel until it come up through a riser hole at the highest point of the space.

The plan is to use wheel steering with the wheel mounted at the forward end of the cockpit in front of the coaming. I've been making up the parts for this and the arrangement is shown below.

There is a brass axle through nylon bushes in the deck framework. The wheel is at one end and a steering drum is under the foredeck. The steering lines will pass through turning blocks (under the deck shelf) and run under the side decks to a quadrant on the rudder shaft.

The black wheel is just a profile cut from a piece of scrap ply so help me gauge the size of the final wheel. I think the handles need to be slightly longer.

The newspaper was to catch any drips of the walnut wood stain as I applied it to the coaming. There will be a capping strip along the top of the coaming and laminating this will be a challenge!