hobie 16 rudder control

hi all,
i have alot of trouble with my rudders its feels as if the boat is always wanting to round up and my tiller is pulling away from me like crazy its really annoying do you know why it is doing this.
thanks
ramble on

This is called "weather helm". It is possible your rudders are not fully locked down. As the rudder shift aft while sailing, this adds pulling load to the tiller. Take a look at the FAQ areas and support pages for rudder issues. This is covered in detail.

Sailing Support: http://www.hobiecat.com/support/index-sail.html

Sailing FAQ: http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewforum.php?f=18

Rudder FAQ: http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=467

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

One spring i was in a hurry putting the boat together and actually had the whole rudder system turned around backwards...
and the result was the weird handling like you experienced.....

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•Present boat -1998 Hobie 16 Solana Sails furling jib[/size]

Both of the above mentioned things could be making your boat steer funny. If it's your cams this may help:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUUA7l6fzIk[/youtube]

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Sail Revolution
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It makes a huge difference if your rudders are not locked down, fortunately if that is the case, it's a pretty easy fix.

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http://www.GetWetSailing.com It's A Great Day To Sail!

My boat used to do this on a certain point of sail, and had someone not shown me this it'd still be doing it; although your situation might be different. Anyway, check your side-stay's adjustment. It could be just that their adjusted all the way down which creates that crazy weather helm that kills your hands.

I'm not convinced one can neutralize weather helm at all points of sail on a Hobie 16. You need a boat with dagger boards.

As pointed out in one of Matt Miller's links, you don't want to neutralize weather helm. A little weather helm is a safer boat and lee helm is dangerous. With weather helm, if you have a problem you can let go of the helm and the boat will turn into the wind.

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Howard