Racelite One Piece Gudgeons

I recently installed a Racelite 358BR gudgeon as a retrofit on my son's PDRacer (Hull #491). The original rudder hardware consisted of eye screws and a piece of all-thread (Photo #1). After we experienced a rudder failure at Sail Oklahoma, I knew it was time to upgrade to proper hardware. I had a problem, though. I constructed the hull with a narrow strip of wood to reinforce the stern transom for the rudder attachment. The standard Racelite 358 gudgeons were too wide to fit on this strip of wood (Photo #2). Luckily, Racelite makes a gudgeon for narrow stern transoms...the 358BR.

The 358BR gudgeon is solidly built; I have no worries about this piece failing. Perhaps the best selling point for the 358BR, though, is ease of installation. Because the one piece of hardware has holes drilled for both pintles, there is no fussing with lining up two gudgeons. The gudgeon plate has four pre-drilled holes for bolts or screws.

One interesting feature of the 358BR is that the pintle holes are drilled 1 3/4" aft of the transom (Photo #3). As such, the standard rudder hold-down hardware will not work without modification. To get around this, I simply drilled a hole in one pintle for a cotter pin."

--Bryan

Hi Chuck,

I bought a gudgeon and pintle set from you for my Puddle Duck.

The little retaining lever is too short hold the pintle in place, so I just installed a short block of wood to take care of the problem,

Best wishes,

Bill Nolen

Fabricated from 1/8" thick stainless steel, the RL-358-BR is 5" between tangs. The base is 2" wide with four 3/16" mounting holes. The centers of the holes for the pintles are nominally 1-3/4" from the transom. The overall height of the tangs above the base is 2-1/8". Takes #10 fastener.