I attached the rudder cables by using a thimble to make an eye,and swaged the wire using copper swages.These are available at any marine supply that has small sailboat gear. They can do the swages as well .For the attachment to the rudder wings I used stainless shackles,also sized for small sailboats.It is easily detached,ungodly strong,and looks good.

>

> 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