Ha! Roadrunner, you and a couple others on this board are geniuses. Thanks for sharing the rudder possibilities.
I took my new sailing rudder out for a spin. I did not sail today, just peddled. Here's what I found...
The Good (no, no! the great!!!):
1. Control was excellent. Even at slow speeds I could turn my ship (an '09 Outback with the long Turbo fins) accurately without any momentary drift when coming out of a hard turn. The turning radius didn't not appear to be any different, but set the rudder straight and the boat immediately straightened. I took aim at several power poles on shore and each time I could nail the heading. It almost felt digital.
Authority was so strong that at first I was startled when I first entering a hard turn at a fast speed. The boat actually tipped, or leaned, into the turn for a moment!
The Bad:
1. The huge rudder had a hard time being put down once it was up. "Down" didn't work at all at first, but later in the session it behaved better. Not sure why the change. There is a chance that my rudder cables are a bit out of rig.
2. The standard rudder was short enough to "clip" under the rear bungee webbing. The cord served to hold the rudder safely to the deck even if the rear of the yak entered the water at a great angle. Once in the water, a quick turn freed the rudder, then a pull on the down cable brought her down. Simple, safe and neat.
The sailing rudder, on the other hand, is too large to tuck under the cord and yet automatically free itself with a turn before lowering. Without that convenient "cord tuck" this huge rudder wanted to drop prematurely as I lowered the rear of the yak over the shore bank and into the water. In this case, with a bank only maybe 9" above the water, I had to be extra careful not to allow the rudder to drop as I slid the yak into the water. I fear that someday this uncommanded rudder drop will stress or break the rudder as it scrapes the lakeshore bottom.
However I may be able to arrange a different "cord tuck" by adding a diagonal bungee without mounting additional hardware. This simple mod might solve the problem. We'll see.
The Ugly (for shallow water users):
1. With the standard rudder I could cinch the rudder down minimally. That kept the rudder down yet allowed the cable some stretch buffer in case I hit something underwater that forced the rudder up. But the new rudder is so huge that at fast speeds it wants to come up ...unless it is fully cinched as tight as possible. With the rudder cable already stretched to its limits when fully cinched, I fear something will break the next time I hit something underwater.
I am not sure what to do about this. Perhaps the only thing I can do (and this is a half measure) is clip the bottom of the rudder as Roadrunner did so I'll have a bit less of a chance of fitting something underwater. This is a huge bummer for me unless Hobie has some kind of extra spring tension under the deck I don't know about that helps a taught cable to give a bit more in a collision.
Thomas
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There is absolutely no reason to keep switching rudders!! The nuts will wear out eventually and start falling off just from vibration. The sailing rudder is much better in all situations and Hobie would benefit all of us by providing it as the standard rudder (as well as the ST turbo fins etc of the performance package). I could think of no logical reason anyone would opt for the less optimal performing smaller counterparts. I have yet to find anyone who would go back to the smaller versions once they have experienced the performance models. 
