Daggerboard and Rudder Assembly

Daggerboard after sanding

Drying varnish with shop lamps

Although very straightforward to construct, the daggerboard and kick-up type rudder assembly were the most time consuming parts of the sail kit.  The daggerboard was the simplest:  glue on handle cheeks, then feather leading and trailing edges with the sander.  Three coats of epoxy and three or more coats of varnish.  I decided to oil the handle which provides UV protection and feels better to the hand.

The rudder blade went in similar fashion:  feathering, epoxy, and varnish.

Rudder blade after sanding

Rudder blade pull up hole

 In order to bring the kick-up rudder blade back to vertical position a rope has to pass through the rudder head and be attached to the blade by means of a knot hole.  Following some advice on the CLC Builders' Forum I over-drilled the rudder blade knot hole and then filled it with wood powder epoxy, let it cure, then drilled the half inch hole through the epoxy.  This insures the wood around the hole doesn't deteriorate from water saturation.  Because I feathered the trailing edge of the blade above the hole position ( a screw-up on my part) I had to thicken and reshape the edge adjacent to the half inch hole with epoxy and then drill the quarter inch rope hole into the edge radial to the half inch hole.  Once again wood thickened epoxy comes to the rescue.

Glueing the rudder head

 The rudder head consists of two external "cheeks" and two internal pieces that form the rope channel.  All are glued together, epoxied and varnished.  The tiller fits on the top and at right angles to the head, glued then the contact is filleted with wood thickened epoxy.