I finished the rudder and tiller tonight, except for final disassembly and painting and fitting. It's going to work great! I even sanded the aluminum rudder mount!
I tuned the rudder mountings to accept a homemade oak tiller instead of the kludge round metal tiller that was on the boat when i got her. So the only thing that is original is the rudder blade (Bet I could make one of them too!)
The new tiller fits my hand well, travels in a nice smooth arc, doesn't bang my knee on a radical course change and will accept the tiller tamer I plan to install.
I have to wait until I get a nice warm day so I can mount the rudder and fit all the lines. That's when the pictures will start showing up.
As long as I'm making progress....