EclecticGuy

(Yes, I know “mudder” is a racehorse that runs on a muddy track and that I actually mean “mutter”. I considered going with the Bostonian accent and calling this post “It’s a ruddah, I muddah” but I didn’t think anyone would get it.)

Now that I’ve had my kayak for a few weeks, I decided a rudder would be a good thing to have. I like fly-fishing on the local rivers by drifting downstream with the current. Without a rudder, it is a bit of a chore to keep the kayak facing the direction I want. For ocean fishing, I’ve had many recommendations for a rudder – so here goes!

I looked at a couple of different options including the manufacturer’s kit, the Smarttrack rudder kit, and the KFS rudder kit. I even considered making one from scratch, but time is a precious commodity to me, so I opted for the Native Watercraft kit. Here is what came in the box:

There are replacement sliding footpads, the rudder assembly, plastic tubes for the cable sleeves, the cables, and a bag of hardware that included:

the SS rudder bracket, screws and lock washers, 2 bungee cords and mounting rivets, pins and rings, 3 custom pad eyes and mounting rivets, shrink tuning and crimp ferrules. Everything is high quality and the instructions are clear, well written and have decent B&W photographs. I think this tutorial with color photographs might help other installers.

The first step is to locate and drill the three 3/16″ holes to attach the custom pad eyes. Native actually punched the location for these on the kayak from the factory! No measuring required. Find the punch mark, drill the hole. Here is where they are located:

One is in the stern, the second 1/2 way to the cockpit and the 3rd is next to the mounting point for the cargo bungee. Once the holes are drilled, use a pop rivet gun to attach them. I dabbed a bit of Marine Goop on each pad eye before attaching. Here are the pad eyes installed:

The next step is to attach the 2 short bungees. One is for the rudder control cord up by the starboard carrying handle, the other is in the stern by the rear carrying handle – it is used to hold the rudder for transportation and storage. Here is the starboard bungee installed:

It is pop riveted with a dab of Goop to seal it. The location for these bungees is also punched at the factory. Here is the rear bungee that holds the rudder:

The next steps are to install the plastic rudder tubing. Basically, you drill 1/4″ holes in the pads at the stern and footpad area, flare the plastic tubing with heat (details below), route the tubing (the only tricky part of the installation) and cut and flare the other end. Here is a photo sequence showing it all.

 Rear Holes

Footwell Holes

Flaring the tubing ends is fun. I heated the tubing with a lighter and then used the head of an 8D nail to smash it flat. While the plastic is still hot, I pushed the nail in to the tubing to open the bore. Here is the result:

You only flatten one end of each tube so you can insert the unflattened end into the holes in the stern. Routing the tubing is a chore but the instructions recommend using a wire coat hanger straightened out – so do I! I pushed the tubing completely in to the hull and removed the rear hatch cover and insert so I could get my arm in there. The coat hanger is inserted in the foot well hole directed toward the stern. By reaching in the rear hatch, you can feel the hanger and the tubing. Using 1 hand, you need to slide the end of the tubing as far over the hanger wire as you can. That was about 1 1/2 feet for me. Once you have pushed as much tubing on to the wire, slowly pull the hanger out of the hole in the foot well. When you see the black tubing, gently guide it through the hole. I actually had to enlarge the holes ever so slightly. I also trimmed the end of the tubing to a bevel to help it through the hole. Do both sides, here is what you end up with:

You can see the black tubing extending out the holes behind the footpads. Pull the tubes taut so the flared ends at the stern seat nicely.

With the tube pulled tight, I held the end protruding out the foot well holes with pliers. In one continuous sequence I cut the tube so 1 inch extended past the opening, heated it, flared it, reamed it with the nail while still hot and held it for several minutes to let the plastic harden. Do both sides. Here is the final result:

Not bad, huh! The next step is installing the rudder bracket and the rudder itself.

I did have a little problem with the bracket – the holes were too close together and I could not screw it to the stern mounts. I drilled out the top hole with a 1/4″ bit until it fit. The bracket attaches with 2 SS machine screws and lock washers. The rudder attaches with a pin and cotter pin.

Now it’s looking like a rudder!

Now it is back up to the cockpit to replace the footpads. The old ones are removed and the new ones fitted.

These pads slide on the tracks – that is how you control the rudder. Adjustment is made with a nylon strap and buckle – that’s coming up next. First, insert the SS control cables through the black tubing from the stern. Then attach the pins and cotter pins to the rudder bellcrank.

Pull both SS cables taut. The instructions call for cutting the cable 1 1/2″ beyond the center of the front footrail screw. Make sure both sides are the same length! Once cut, remove the pins and cotter pins from the rudder bellcrank – this is so you have a little extra cable to work with. The next step is to make the loop end through the grommet in the nylon strap. First, push a piece of shrink wrap tube over the cable along with two ferrules. Then loop the cable through the grommet and back in to the ferrules. Here is what it looks like after crimping the ferrules:

After crimping, slide the shrink tube up to cover the ferrules and shrink it in to place. Do both sides.

That is basically it! Reattach the cable ends to the rudder bellcrank, then thread the nylon strap through the buckles on the footpads. The last step is to route the rudder control lines through the 3 pad eyes installed in the first step. These are looped through the starboard bungee hook and tied off with a barrel knot. Here is the completed assembly:

It took me 1 hour and 45 minutes from the time I opened the box to completion – and that included taking all of the photographs along the way! A reasonable estimate to complete would be about an hour.