A Better Direction

Looks a littler closer to this now.

 So I was cruising the interwebs last night and came across a great blog about a 1958 Lido restoration: https://restorealido14.wordpress.com. It is a wealth of information about keeping these older boats in top condition. So while I sat there and ruminated on what needed to be done to Lido #1280 the rudder came to mind.
 Faithful readers will no doubt recall the incident last year that led to my former centerboard became my rudder. And it's been in that state until now. The centerboard and the rudder are about at the same depth so if the centerboard bottoms, so does the rudder. It's not been a major issue save for early and late seasons of Flathead when the possibility of a grounding increases close to shore due to the lower water level. But it's always been a noticeable difference from a stock boat. There must have been a reason that Schock designed the rudder that way. So this morning it was out with the power tools and the result is a new rudder. 

Just a bit too long.

 The first thing to do was to figure out how big a stock rudder is. You see there are now easy measurements out there. Nothing saying "The Rudder on a Lido 14 consists of sides of this size". Nope. There is a measurement certificate page that shows what it is to be class legal but nothing as definitive as the size of a stock foil. So I had to guess. And this is where Photoshop helped.
 I had a really good picture of a stock wooden rudder. What I needed to know was various dimensions to cut my current one to size. The only thing I had was the measurement of the rudder stock. In Photoshop I used the measurement tool to get a ratio to find the other lengths. Then using the protractor tool I got the angle of the stock to the blade. In case your wondering the angle is ~55° and the rough measurement on the front side of the blade should be around 24". The blade itself is 10" wide. Mine is a bit wider but I'm okay with that.
 Using an old rusty screwdriver as a scribe I marked out my cut lines and made the cuts with a jig saw. Variable speed is a wonderful thing. When I had the shape I wanted I test fit the rudder head, scribed the outline and where the bolt holes needed to be. Once satisfied took the head off and drilled the holes. The board itself was a good five inches too long so I cut the bottom square and rounded the corners.

That looks much better.

 I mated the the rudder head on and save for some varnishing the new rudder is good to go. One of the interesting things is on level ground I can now mount the rudder on the trailer, something I've been unable to do before. Two more days until I get to see how the new rudder works out! 

Hung rudder.