: The rudder bracket I am building is going to be U shaped and attached to a
: solid block of wood that was made into the stern, with a pin running
: through it from the rudder wing assembly (One Ocean Kayaks kit). I cannot
: find anywhere any dimensions for how far out the tabs should be from the
: back and hole diameter as well as placement. I'm sure there should be some
: sort of specifics to accomodate for clearance and whatnot. What have you
: done?

Can you send us a picture of what you have got already? Include some measurements so we know what size materials you are working with. IF you can't send a picture, at least give us more details. A lot of kayak rudders mount to the rear deck. the rudder blade can be lifted completely out of the water and stored on the deck, or lowered and angled to give the desired rudder effect. If you are leaving yours attached permanently to the hull then you may have a much simpler setup.

clarkcraft has gudgeons and pintles for attaching rudders to small sailboats--which sounds like what you are trying ot do. You might consider buying something "off-the-shelf" rather than trying to fabricate your own. Here is a link (it is a long one!) to one of their pages on marine hardware:

http://www.clarkcraft.com/cgi-supplies/shop.pl?type=topic&topic_name_value=hardware_g_p_s&cart_id=ddf02b5ea8eaa1b677fd10255f5dc4a6

And a picture of such hardware is below. Maybe you can get some idea of the clearances needed by looking at that.

PGJ