DaySailer.org Forum

Guys- finally got my 68 DS1 out on Lake Lanier , Ga. 1st time since selling my Sunfish for the "next step" in my learning /sailing experience - One area of concern was the rudder - I'm not sure if mine was functioning properly - The " swing part" rode up half out of water - I could stop and shove down the piece and it would "cock" and hold that position but then "uncock" and again rise up half out of the water - appearing to create drag and of course lose it's responsivenes - as one would expect -
Is this normal?

Bob
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The stock rudder is held by a wing nut. This system has worked well for me, as long as I tighten the nut (with pliers) "just so", not so tight that I can't manually bend the blade a bit for storage (and or allow the blade to kick up with ground contact), but tight enough that the water pressure does not allow it to come up.

Other people have rigged a line to help pull the rudder up, but, done the wrong way, this can defeat the "kick-up" feature, which could risk damage to the transom if the rudder strikes ground. There's a "V" cleat that will release above a load threshold. Something like that would be a good approach. (The cleat would be placed on the tiller). One other thing to watch out for is to make sure the tiller can still swing upward with the downhaul engaged.

Finally, some boats have a set of small holes drilled through both "cheeks" and blade. They will hold something like a BBQ skewer, a sacrificial piece of wood that will hold the rudder down but fail when the rudder strikes ground.

Ok - The rudder I have is a black base " rectangle" - I've seen some here and there- It has a nut on the "hinge" area of the blade and housing - are you saying that is what is tightened ? So as to apply just the right amount of pressure ? I noticed as long as I had a fairly strong wind it would stay down - but as soon as the wind slowed or water pressure on the "blade" eased -it would pop up. I read other posts and there was mentioned of a "line" to hold down the "blade" .
I'll try to tighten and see how that works -
Thanks for your input.

Bob

I rigged a line for haul up and haul down. It works well since I can raise and lower it from the helm. However, this past weekend I noticed a little slop in the blade. Either the rudderhead gap is larger than the width of the rudder, of the rudder bolt hole, the pivot, has become larger. Looks like a fall repair.

Mine has the sacrificial dowel. I use a poplar dowel. It works....... Over and over

On your down haul line you might want to consider an auto release cleat. http://www.duckworksbbs.com/hardware/cl ... /index.htm Tim Webb suggested this to me and I added it for this year's Tx200. Worked very well. Kept the blade down while sailing, but when I hit bottom in the shallows, it would release.

John

Bob,

My boat is like yours; my rudder has the Nylock nut on the rudder pivot bolt. No wing nut. I keep a wrench (9/16" if memory serves) in my toolbox and as Greenlake said, tighten it just enough to hold the blade down but not so tight that it won't kick up if it hits bottom. The rudder on the DS is definitely a weak link. Subconsciously, I find myself willing my rudder to fail so I'll have a reason to spend the $$$ on a Rudder Craft blade.

I built my own rudder replacement.

My factory rudder blade was neither flat nor did it have parallel faces where is swiveled in the rudder head. No amount of tightening would keep the foil from moving while sailing. I laminated more fiberglass on both sides to fair the top of the foil flat with parallel sides. After that I drilled the pivot hole over-sized and epoxied a bushing in place. I then cut 2 large shims/washers out of thick plastic (a milk bottle) placing them on each side of the rudder. Problem solved.