Brian,

I am also putting the finishing touches on my Ches 17, and purchased the Feathercraft rudder from CLC. I was unhappy with all of the things you were. Here's what I've done so far. First, there was no way I was going to blast holes in the side of my smooth, fair hull. Before I put the deck on, I epoxied plywood backing plates inside the cockpit with stainless T nuts through the back. Using a router, I carefully milled a tiny bit of plastic out of the channel so I could mount it with pan head screws from the inside. This solved any slide hang up problems. I also ran the cable housing before putting on the deck (much easier). As for the little V block, I threw away the plastic one and made one out of some clear spruce. I plan to epoxy it to the deck, and I expect it will probably break off, but it looks pretty nice. I've been searching all over for a better way to attach the cables to the rudder wings. My current plan is to make a pair of small links out of 6061 aluminum and swage the cable to the end of them. As for cutting the end off, I got the same answer from CLC. I carfully drilled the hole with a sharp forstner bit, and still the heat made the glass delam on one side because the stern is so narrow (and the bit so close to breaking through). This made me pretty mad, but I just lammed on a small glass patch, faired it in and left the hole alone.

Andy Gere

Santa Cruz, CA