Moving on

Well after letting the resin dry for the water intakes I was able to do some rough finishing and sand them flush with the bottom of the sponsons. Here is a shot before sanding.



And this is what it looks like after some sanding. I still need to decide if I take Hanspeters approach and cut the nipplesof these plastic intakes, drill the 5mm hole all the way through and insert a 5mm tube. But I don't need to make that decision just yet.



The next task was installing the hydraulic look-a-like steering rods for the rudder. This took a while to get everything aligned properly but is straighforward except getting the nuts on the bolts! Small hands or good tools help!

I measured 4.5mm vertically from the deck and 9mm horizontally from the standoffs. To get to these measurements I put some double sided tape on the mounting bracket and then experimented till I found the position I felt was just right. Basically I put a straight edge up against the underside of the rudder arms and marked where it met the hull which gave me the vertical position. For the horizontal position I just kept hydraulic cylinders parallel with the standoff.



I drilled the 2mm holes by hand (like most of the other smaller holes) to make sure they were perfectly lined up.



The hole for the steering cable was a bit of a dilema, either you make a small hole the diameter of the plastic/teflon sleeve at just the right angle and in just the right spot or you make a bigger hole like the one in the middle of the mounting plate. I chose the latter and made a good size hole (4mm). When I make the final installation of the steering arms I will surround the plastic sleeve with silicone.



The other side went a lot quicker once I knew the measurements and had built up a little self confidence :-)



Done!