A few posts ago I was moaning about the quality of the hardware on the FeatherCraft rudder kit. The worst piece of hardware was the rudder stop mounted on the deck. The kit came with a small block and instructions to epoxy the block to the wooden deck. That sounded like an opportunity to tear the aft deck as soon as I finished the boat. Soooo,

I bought some 1" polyethylene, used the kit stop as a guide and went to work on a router template. The polyethylene is the same stuff as the white cutting boards and it routers real well. I matched the curve of the deck and was able to use wood screws to provide a solid union between the deck and the rudder stop. The polyethylene was about $8 but I have enough for three stops and the router template is in great shape. So, before you epoxy something to the deck, think about a router, pilot bit and some plastic for the fix. Brian.