Seat cushion and new rudder

I just made and will try out in next week's race seat covers for the foam. While I was going to use garden cloth it appears that stuff isn't quite as strong as I expected. There is a mesh but a lot of the fibers are merely a mat and don't impart much strength.

The material I ended up using is a garden plastic, with push-through perforations every 1/16 inch or so. One side is somewhat slick, but the push-through side is moderately high friction. Anyway, I cut it roughly to size and welded/cut it to final size with the electric shrink wrap sealer. With the perforations pointing outward I think it will drain fairly well. It took all of 10 minutes work, cutting/sealing two sides, turning it inside out, stuffing in the foam and sealing the remaining edge.

This stuff seems to be fairly tough, and should last for quite a while.

I also purchased some "industrial strength" adhesive backed velcro to secure the cushions to the boat. The vertical orientation of the 2 inch wide seat back strips will allow some vertical adjustment to accommodate the position of the PFD. My spine was rather sore after the last two races due to a gap between the cushion and the lower edge of the PFD.


In preparation for the next race I have replaced the prop strut with a foil shaped rudder. The foil is something I found online a couple of years ago for use in making rudders for a different boat. It is aluminum, about 3/8 inch thick at the thickest point, and about 2-3/4 inches wide. Taking some scrap anodized aluminum I salvaged from some ancient office partitions years ago I cut a triangular hole near one end to accommodate the rudder and its intended range of motion port and starboard. This replaces the U-channel prop strut holder previously installed.


I cut a two armed tiller from 1/8 inch aluminum sheet. This has a foil-shaped slot to control the turning of the rudder, and allow it to not impede the rudder from moving vertically.

The foil was cut to about 17 inches length, with a notch cut from the bottom so as to surround the tab supporting the prop strut bearing. A 1/4 inch hole was drilled just above the notch and two holes cut at 1 and two inches from the opposite end. The bottom hole had a heavy duty nylon tie wrap looped through it and the hole in the prop strut bearing tab, with a slight amount of slack enabling the rudder to twist port and starboard.

A 3/4 inch bolt was inserted through the top hole and a nylock nut used to secure it. This is used to prevent the rudder from dropping through the tiller slot.


A small hole was drilled about midway down the rudder. This is to be used when lifting and holding the propeller shaft in its upper position for shore-side transport by inserting a pin.

Another synthetic cord was tied from one tiller arm, threaded through the same dead eyes as are used for the dipping rudder shock cords, stretched to the left grab tube, and back to the other tiller arm through the other dead eye. Control of the strut rudder is by pulling the top of the cord for starboard and by pulling the bottom of the same cord for port.

Due to the width of the strut support the rudder is limited to +/- 20 degrees.


I hope to give it a try this holiday weekend.

If the rudder/strut works, I'll consider replacing it with a lighter wood/aluminum core or glass/foam/aluminum core foil. This would use the original (or equivalent) strut for the core. I might also replace the strut support with one that allows a wider range of motion, e.g., +/- 30 degrees.

If it works really well the dipping rudders will be history. This should reduce the windage steering encountered at the last two races.