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Advice on repair - suggestions appreciated!


PJ

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I recently bought the kids an old (unbranded) 14 footer. After a couple of outings the bracket holding one of the rudders came away from the hull - the rivets gave way. They are the old style plywood non-retractable rudders.

Can anyone tell me if the bracket can just be rivetted back on? There does not appear to be any damage to the original rivet holes in the hull, at least none that I can see. Should aluminium rivets hold it OK or do they need to be steel? Does anyone know of there's some kind of plate inside the hull for rivets to strain on or do they just strain on the fibreglass?

You can probably tell I know very little about boats so any help would be appreciated - the kids can't wait to get it back on the water!

Thanks in advance.

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hey PJ,

basically it is a bit hard to know how it is constructed, but normal engineering practice is to have the rivets pass through a steel plate within the hulls for the rivets to grasp on to....

maybe someone knows which brand/make of cat uses rivets to hold pintle brackets on the transom?

using rivets seems a bit odd as there can be a lot of stress placed on rivet heads from groundings etc...might be a design weak point so as to not rip transoms off?

rivets best used for sheer force?

cheers

d

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Guys,

Not sure if it helps - but Windrush (14 footers) do use rivets on rudder post guides. These are pretty sizable rivets (0.25inch?). I dont think my home handyman rivet gun would fit one of these monsters.

Windrush 14s dont have pintles (if this means fixed vertical pins) - but rather a hole to insert a pin - secured by a split pin.

The lower two rivets are oriented horizontally into the transom holding a "C" channel section with a vertically oriented hole for the rudder post.

The top two secure a horizontal plate on the rear lip of the deck.

I'd post a picture to see if it helps identify the mystery cat - but I cant see how to post/attach a picture here.

I guess they use rivets for ease of construction (no factory entry to hulls for securing bolts) at least for the lower two fixings.

With cat rudders usually having a means of kicking up on beaching/grounding - then only relatively small loads should be transmitted to the pintles/fixings in the case of groundings.

regards

Mike

W14, Perth

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