Finishing off the Ruddersafe and New Cleat

19th June 2016

Today I returned to the marina with future son-in-law Lewie to finish fitting the Ruddersafe, yet another fender and a new foredeck cleat. Lewie and my daughter Alex are getting married next weekend and will be using our boat for their honeymoon - I want to make it as easy as possible for them and the Ruddersafe has a good reputation for making the boat more controllable.

A couple of weeks ago when I tried to fit it there was a fault with the bracket on one side, Norfolk Marine sent me a new one straight away but I haven't had the chance to fit it before now. As I'd done most of the work previously it didn't take long to switch the bracket over (utilising the paddling pool once again!)

I think the Ruddersafe is designed to be a bit closer to the propellor than I've got it.  The anti-cavitation plate on this engine gets much narrower further forward and the curvature means it would be hard to get the clamps on properly so I'l try it like this and see how it goes.

Next up, the cleat on the foredeck. The standard item is not very big and struggles to take the 2 mooring ropes and the one for the anchor, so I decided to fit something a bit more useable.

To access the fixings meant removing the forward headlining inside, quite easy to do. I was surprised that the cleat was only held on with 2 M4 fixings, the 2 on the stern are fitted the same and already both are loose.

I chose one of these to fit and used 4 M6 fixings (and bedded it on silicone) so it should be fine.

I wasn't able to use the 2 existing holes as they weren't quite spaced the same (and not straight!) so I filled them with Araldite and drilled 4 new holes.

From underneath you can see that the ply lining has to be drilled away so that the washers and nuts are recessed, otherwise the roof lining won't be able to go back on. So the cleat is only fixed to the outer layer of GRP, but this looks quite thick and with 4 fixings it should be fine. Drilling upwards with a 16mm bit to counterbore the 4 holes was a bit nerve-wracking, one small slip . . . . .

Lewie re-fitting the headlining panel

New post has plenty of room for all the ropes

The new bow fender was easy to tie on.

Once the work was finished (we also added another 25l fuel tank to increase range) we went for a trial run up to Caversham lock and back, the Ruddersafe makes a very clear improvement to straight line stability.