The backing blocks are absolutely necessary. The hull itself is too thin to anchor a screw into.The plates screw to the boat. Hopefully there is a wood backing block inside the hull that has not rotted that the bottom plate will affix to.
I never used 5200 but from what I read in this forum it's a permanent adhesive which is very hard to remove. I would use some silicone sealant on the screws, like Marine Goop or some other less permanent sealant. You never know when you'll need to get them out again.
The shoulder on the latch plate's single screw stops the latch plate from tightening snug, leaving just enough play to allow the plate to be controlled by the carriage bolt tension adjustment.
- The flat spring plate is attached to the top plate via a screw which also holds the top plate to the hull (the screw is the furthest toward the bow).
- The long bolt goes through the bottom plate up to the spring plate and tension is adjusted via a wing nut on the spring plate.
- The spring plate, and to some degree the bottom plate, flex and allow the rudder plate to pop out when the rudder is forced backward by hitting the beach or a rock, etc.
Sure thing ... here you go......Perhaps someone out there has an actual picture of a blade from the old rudder system with that hunk of brass encapsulating the top of the blade.
It was available in the parts list from its introduction to its obsolescence..., and then some. But, you're right, you'd have needed to visit a Sunfish dealer to learn of the available upgrade since there was no Windward Leg and no Internet back then.That brass cap should be mandatory for anyone with the old rudder system. Unfortunately, unless you knew about it, you would never know it even existed in the parts inventory for the old rudder system. I don't think it was even listed.
As you pointed out, the bronze Gudgeon Head was only around for a couple of years as a stop-gap measure before AMF revised the whole assembly. Doubtful many of these ever existed as retrofit surplus in the first place.Blame some of it on general marketing as well. In my neck of the woods, there were always tons of Sunfish dealers, and they always had racks of the old parts. The problem was that this part was never ever there -
I guarantee you they had the page in their dealer book. Whether they readily shared it or not is another matter. I guess I was lucky to have a caring and sharing dealer back then. Thank you Hedlund Marine ... and later on, Wind Line Sails.. . . and neither were the any sort of point-of-purchase diagrams of the old the Sunfish parts, such as the diagram above.
That's what's commonly know as, "support after the sale"..., but how far back ... we're talking about covering boats built between 40 and 50 years ago.To this day, in my opinion, Sunfish still suffers too much front sell, and not enough back sell.
I think what MakerBot could turn out by milling plastic stock would not be sufficiently sturdy. Plastic does not like to be cut away and every corner, even if relieved, would be a weak point.As Wayne mentioned, low volume, out of production items were not worth the time to market ...
Home fab is only in it's infancy but you'll soon have the ability to make new parts yourself. In fact, the Cup Cake unit would let you turn out the plastic caps for the masts and spars. If you could get in contact with an owner, I'm sure he could make a plastic version of the rudder cap.
It's too bad this was such a short lived and obscure part - it could have been marketed as a "blade saver", and would have benefitted an awful lot of people over the years, if not to this present day.
Yes, LP marketing has been better, but they still should be creating old-fashioned newsletters, etc. to create an ongoing communication line with their past customers.
If I were in their marketing department, I'd also be updating the replacement sail colors every single year, such as to create interest, and to freshen up the product line.
And I'm surprised they never licensed their name off to a life vest company, such as to create a specific Sunfish line of life preservers. There appear to be a gazzillion life preserver manufacturers out there, but no real dominant name in the marketplace.
Oh right, sorta the poor man's stereo lithography.MakerBot is molding the plastic using heat. It starts with a coil of ABS plastic line...
ABS is what you see in computer keyboards, TV cabinets, and dash board faces. Not nearly rugged enough for the torsional resistance needed by rudder cheeks. An educated guess is the rudder cheeks are a high % glass fiber reinforced Nylon or Acetal (aka DuPont Delrin) w/heavy amounts of UV inhibitor added.I believe this is the same type of plastic used in the plastic rudder cheeks.
...you could make changes and not be out more that a few pennies. Would be nice to have a new bow handle for less than a dollar.