> The reason for the rudder (which I neglected to explain) is that
> I want to rig my canoe (cedar strip) to sail. I have a nice little
> sail and have built a lee board but didn't want to fasten anything
> perment to the end of the canoe and mess up the look of the boat -
> thus the side mount question. Thanks for the respose though! I've
> sailed a bit and always thought the rudder had to be as far back as
> possible.

Check out a book on strip building canoes and kayaks by David Hazen. It is an oldie but goodie. Amazon.Com has it. He has plans and nice pictures showing how to rig a canoe for sailing, including how to attach a rudder, step the mast, and install leeboards (plural, by the way)

A piece of hardwood, scribed, and then cut to match the curve of the stern of your canoe can provide a nice square, vertical piece on which to mount the rudder. Hold it on with epoxy and seal it with epoxy. Fiberglassing over it is optional. You can put a hole in this to provide a strong tiedown point for holding the canoe on your car, or for an anchor or sternline.

If you don't like the looks of an extra part on your hull, take a look at some of the motor mounts made for canoes. The simplest ones are a strip of hardwood with an attached board. The hardwood part is clamped across the gunwales as far back as you can get it. The motor mounts to the attached board.

No reason you couldn't do something like that. Here is my idea:

Make a triangular frame to support the top of your rudder. The base of the triangle is clamped to the gunwales as far astern as you can get it. You'll want it to overhange the sides of the boat by an inch or two on each side. The rest of the triangle is clamped to the rear deck with one point facing astern. This gives you 3 or 4 clamps holding the thing on. From the sternmost point of that triangle, drop a piece of wood to support your rudder. The bottom of this vertical piece is braced with strips of wood which come up to the other corners of that triangle.

Round the corners so you don't scratch yourself.

When you are ready to sail, you can clamp the whole assembly to the back deck and gunwales. The rudder is centered, and everything is removable.

By the way, I made some nice gunwale clamps for my canoe from scraps of 5 inch long 2x4. I used a saw to cut a dado in them that was 1/2 inch deep, and as wide as my gunwales are. I used a pair on each side, with the notched ( grooved?) 2x4 pieces in pairs, sandwiching the gunwales. When the two pairs of blocks were where I wanted them, I used a drill to put a hole through them and inserted carriage bolts and wing nuts. I use these to clamp a set of wheels onto my canoe to take it to the river. You could use similar clamps for mounting the leeboards. The nice thing about making the clamps from 2x4 is that the wood is cheap. plantiful, strong, and if you need to get a square edge from those upswept, inwardly-curved stern gunwales, you have plenty of stock to work down with a plane.

I suppose someday I may even varnish these things. Right now they are bare wood and don't mark up, or stick to the finish on the boat. Hope this is of use to you. Paul Jacobson