1 rudder and 1 weather helm issue

Bassicly, my rudder lock system keeps getting down, as in locking without the rudder in position, before i get out to the water. Happens one out of 5 times, but is annoying as hell and would like to know how to avoid it.

In retrospect, it might have something to do with the fact that i sometimes let my rudders down near the beach so the hit the sand and go up by themselves. dont know if has anything to do with the problem.

Second issue is a little trickier,
last weekend i had a reggata and everytime i tried to concentrate on the sail and trimming my main my boat would try to turn to the wind. on any kind of wind. i believe that's called weather helm or that my boat has a lot of it.

Is that normal or should i be able to focus on the sails without giving much thought to the direction (obviously i just mean not moving the tiller extension much for a few seconds)

Thanks for all your kind help, sorry if this thread was already there.

My suspicion is that you have non-rake adjustable castings, and that there's a lot of fore and aft slop in the rudders when they're locked down.

The only solution to this is to fill/re-drill the upper casting hole in the rudder.

This is the thread you're looking for:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=36622

By non- rake adjustable, i guess you mean that i dont have a screw on top of the upper casting for adjusting the cam plate.
Well, i do have that one, i'm going to try and rake my rudders for tomorrow. Hopefully, that will solve my problem.

Thanks for the link to that thread, really helpfull

If the upper arm is loose and able to move left / right and not stay in alignment with the lower... it may kick the cam over with the edge of the casting. You can shim the casting at the bolt hole.

If you let go of the tiller... the boat should round up. That is normal. Having too much weather helm is if there is a constant pull on the tiller that is uncomfortable for you.

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

The going against the wind is a good thing, if you fall off the H16 will slow down by itself if you forget your heading it will slow down. Generally it makes the boat more predictable. The opposite is quite dangerous.