Older H16 rudder blade question

I have an early 70's H16 with mismatched rudder blades. One is fiberglass and the other appears to be some sort of plastic. Looks like it's been painted, but I can see molding flow marks. It's a lot thinner than the glass blade. The following letters are molded in it XX1 or XXI, can't tell which and under that is AH. Anybody know what this blade might be made of? Thanks.

_________________
Southwest Hobie Island Club
http://www.facebook.com/southwesthic

Lexan.

Very tough, but very flexible. And heavy. Lots and lots of elbow grease necessary to get an acceptable surface finish on it.

I was impressed by how flexible the lexan rudders are.
We landed on an island for lunch and of course, the tide went out and I had to drag the boat back to the water. I carry 4 pieces of PVC pipe that I use as makeshift rollers just for this purpose. As I was dragging the boat stern first back to the water, one of the rudders dropped down without me noticing. I set the boat down and noticed the weight of the boat was resting on the rudder that had dropped down. The rudder tip was bent almost 90 degrees. I quickly lifted the boat back up and kicked the rudder out of the way and it snapped back to normal.
If that had happened with an EPO, I would have been sailing home with one rudder.
They may be heavy but they can take some abuse.

_________________
Eric Weller
2006 F18 Capricorn
1980 H16
Keep the pointy side up!

No, if you had done that with an EPO, it just wouldn't have bent. Support the whole weight of the boat w/o flexing? No problem.

Something else will break before those rudders do.

Thanks for the info. If these are on a pre-1973 H16, are they useable on 1980's & 1990's models?

_________________
Southwest Hobie Island Club
http://www.facebook.com/southwesthic

All the rudders have the same profile, some are thicker than others (EPOs and EPO2s are the thickest at almost 1")

The thicker ones may be a tight fit in older rudder castings.

You will probably need to re-drill the mounting holes.

Keep an eye on the old lemon rudders, they tend to get bridle and snap right at the lower casting.

I agree with Matt, the EPO's will support the weight of the boat (please don't ask how I know)

_________________
Brad Stephens
[email protected]
(866) 786-5266 <--- Advice HOTline
http://www.sunjammers.com
www.facebook.com/sunjammers

What Brad's trying to say is that the oldest rudders - the ones that originally came on the 14 and were adapted to the 16 in 1970 - were made of ABS plastic.

UV exposure turns them a definite shade of yellow, and makes them brittle. It's only a matter of time before they snap off.

They are the reason Hobie Cat changed to Lexan rudders in the mid-70's. The Lexan rudders were great in their day, and much less expensive than the aftermarket fiberglass rudders available at the time. However, the EPO rudders blew them all away. You really don't know how much better they are until you've driven a boat with them.