Securing Rudder Gudgeons

I know Hobie catalogue shows ny-lock #12-24 screws for attachment of the gudgeons. The selling point being never have to tighten again.

Two questions...

1) Do all 14/16's from day one have aluminum backing plates in the transom? If not, what year did that start?

2) What is "wrong" with using 5200, gudgeon to hull, and on the screw threads before insertion?

_________________
hobiejohn at earthlink dot net
Fleet 297

Gudgeon screws?

All Hobie 16s have the aluminum plates in the transom...from day one.

We came up with the locking screw to correct a problem with the screws backing out. We tried washers and sealants. The long loc screws worked.

This was after the Hualtuco, Mexico Worlds. We were having to tighten screws after each and every race on the entire fleet of new 16s. What a major pain. In addition, constantly tightening of the screws placed extra loads on the heads and they would fail.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)