Raising the rudder.

The 1984 14.2 is the third sailing dinghy I have had, and the only one that didn't have a line on the rudder to raise it from inside the cockpit. I made a bracket that attaches to the rudder with a line going through the tiller head to a jam cleat on the tiller. Now to raise the rudder I just release the tension adjuster and pull the line and put it in the jam cleat to hold the rudder up-much easier than pulling up the rudder by hand and retightening the tensioner. The boat is almost ready now. woodwork is refinished, new hatch cover made, new bungee for centerboard, ladder installed, motor mount installed, masthead float made and installed. Just need to install line in jib so it can be lowered from the cockpit, and then it will be time to see if it floats!
 

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Hey one thing that just popped up in my head is regarding the two bolts that secure the rudder housing to the bracket containing the pins that pop into the transom. On a particularly sporty day I was on a lake that was large enough to generate some sharp 2' following seas. I was working the helm pretty hard for quite a while. Noticed the response was getting a bit sloppy and OMG discovered that the bolts were working loose! Just think of it, all the force between rudder and tiller is transmitted through those! Managed to tighten them while underway, it was real dicey. Imagine losing the rudder under these conditions, the boat would have lost control and capsized, plus probably rudder would end up at the bottom of the lake.
Moral of the story is to apply a generous coating of loc-tite to bolts before tightly securing the nuts. I did that after this happened (a few seasons ago) and never had a problem since!
 

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