1st time getting boat on the water

Well the H18 I bought a few months ago and have been working on finally got on the water. Everything was working well except for the rudders which kept poping up when I got a lot of speed and the SX wings are still in the repair catagory for now but will be ready for the next outing.

It was a windy afternoon in Georgia on Lake Lanier, very gusty with 20+ knots of wind in the gusts. The boat sailed great but had to do a lot of de-powering and luffing in the gusts because we had no trap harnesses or wings on the boat. My son was also a little nervous and the water a little chilly so I did not push it to hard. A great afternoon sailing.

Now I need to fix the rudders, I think the previous owner changed to the new rudder castings but did not change the holes in the rudder for the new locations. Rigging took longer than I would like but I think I will be much faster the next time with more practice.

Fun day sailing finaly

There was a thread on this forum not too long ago from another fella that had the same issue. The hole locations are not the same for old vs. new style rudder castings. Determine which type of castings you have (old = aluminum cam, new = plastic cam) and then compare the rudder mounting holes to the template available on this site and re-drill as necessary.

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I saw that thread but haven't gotten around to printing the template and laying it out on the rudders yet.

The symptom you describe, rudder blades kicking up at high speed, could also be connected to a couple of other things besides incorrectly drilled rudder holes. Also check out the condition of the cams (metal or plastic?) and the tension on the spring-loaded plungers inside your rudder castings. If your cams are worn out or deformed, the rudders won't stay put. If the cams are fine, but the plungers are set too loose, same thing: rudders pop up. Check your owners manual, there is a process for determining the right pre-load on the plungers.

Hope this helps, I always try and look at the simple things first.

Good luck,

Mike Bennett
Madera, CA

I agree - easy things first but I already have gone through all of that and have new cams, greased plungers etc. When the rudders are locked down and all snapped in place you can move the bottom of the rudder forward approx 3" and then back again. Everything with the cam works good but something is just not right. This 1983 boat also came with the old castings and they were changed out to the new castings but the rudders look very old (black with fibers showing on the outer surface). I am pretty sure the rudder holes are wrong.

Yea, something is very wrong with your rudder system. At most, there should be maybe 1/4" gap between the leading edge of the rudder and the inside surface of the lower casting.



Sounds like it's definitely a good place to start looking. Also make sure the cam "slider plate" is properly adjusted and that the holes in the rudders aren't ovalled out. If they are, fill with epoxy and re-drill.

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