I've been busy with this and that ( I have two boats and too many other interests) but I have been making slow progress on the rudder. In the last post you all saw it glu'ed up and cut to shape. I've since drilled the holes for the rudder post and pintle.
Woodworking tool fanatics will note my drawknife which is in the grey toolbox. Yes, I use a drawknife, I used to use that one to dress cabers for the Highland Games. Anyway, my garage is a mess. The upper hole for the rudder post is 11 5/8 inches deep so I had to get an extension for my 1-inch bit.
The tape is there to tell me how far in to go.
Once I had the holes drilled, I used the table saw to remove material at the trailing edge of the rudder and smoothed a reasonable taper into the back 5 inches +/-. I'll never be racing other Pipers with this boat, they're all in Scotland and I'm in California, so I didn't worry too much about getting anything like a foil shape in the rudder. I figure that smooth, strong and a reasonable taper is good enough.
After a lot of sanding with 100 grit to knock down the gouges I put in with the belt sander, the rudder is ready for fiberglassing.