caco_bell

After all these responses my thought is to get the new style bracket and add an extra transom gudgeon strap above the bottom tiller strap. Then I'd have three transom gudgeon straps for the bottom and one for the top. The top doesn't seem to need reinforcement from what I've seen. Bottom brackets are often an issue on any boat after all. With this plan I'd only need to install one extra piece on the transom and so would have minimal room for error. I mean I'm handy but I don't want to get into more than I need to. I think I can get a SS pin from McMaster that is long enough for essentially 4 brackets. I like gouvernails grocery bag approach to taking out slop, I used to use a plastic shim kit on my former boat and it was a pain to find the right shim. Fortunately for my situation, Wisconsin still uses plastic grocery bags, so they're easy to come by.

I have recently purchased a J/24 with the old style pintles and gudgeons. A fellow J/24 owner told me that the old style pintles and gudgeons aren't secure and I would need to replace eventually as they fail on the bottom. I've looked at the other pintle/gudgeon design and while I get that the pin through is more secure due to the cotter pin, it seems like there is the same amount of gudgeons on the bottom. So I don't understand why the old style would fail more often? Is it an issue with the the old style not having a cotter pin and thus being less secure? If that is the issue, couldn't one just drill through the old pintle and install a split pin? The boat is otherwise in good shape, just looking to save some money on non-performance related items. Thanks!