rudder trimming

When I am sailing, should I have to be applying that much pressure on my rudders to keep the boat going at the angle I'd like it to? I did 4 hours of straight sailing this weekend, and my forearm is extremely sore now, and not to mention at the time I was sailing I was getting tired as well.
Please let me know if it really should be that hard to hold the boat going at the angle I am going, or if maybe I need to do some sort of trimming on my rudders.
thanks

Two things could be going on:

1. Rudders aren't locked down
2. See #1.

make sure the rudders are not on backwards, 90% of the h16's that come thru the shop with rudder problems have them on backwards.

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The rudders were locked down, because I did realize my rudders had popped up during the sail (but that made it EXTREMELY hard to hold) but I popped them back down, so I know for a fact they wern't popped up.

Additionally, they arn't on backwards.
Any more ideas?

don't mean the rudder blades, make sure the rudder arms are pointing towards the middle, there is a port and starboard upper rudder casting.

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I don't know what year your boat is, so to fix the problem could be extremely difficult, or very easy depending. Here's my $.02, and of course not having seen your boat my answer is kind of like one of those call in doctor shows--I could be totally wrong, but I'll make an educated guess.

Sailing is a balance of forces acting on parts of your boat to move you through the water, lateral resistance on the hull, sail, foil etc. So moving power around by raking the rig differently can make you have steerage issues. Have you raked the mast differently?

To balance your boat out and make it drive more easily it sounds like you need to rake your rudders under the boat more. Is there a bolt head on the top part of your upper rudder casting?

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leave it up to Jeremy to show off, thanks for the detailed help, I was not thinking that in-depth yet.

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yes both arms are pointing towards the middle.

Yes, I did rake the mast back a little bit to get more power out of it. Can you please explain how I can rake the rudders under the boat more?
Also, I'm not sure what you mean by a bolt head on top of the rudder casting... here's a picture I dug up that you can kind of see the rudders in the background -
http://www.lapiter.com/newboat/Picture_015e.jpg

You do not have the adjustable rudder castings, so you will have to redrill the rudders to get more forward rake. I have the same problem and have been looking for some adjustable castings.

Save people the effort

Would that be a bias cut tramp? Does it lace up the other side also? Weird....

1. Is this a new problem? If so, then you did something wrong or different rigging it. First check that the rudders are not on backwards. I did that last year and thought someone bent the tiller arm. Then I thought some more and took the whole thing off the transom and switched sides, and TA DA! problem solved.

2. That is the funkiest tramp installation I've seen. How's it working out?

3. How long did the neoprene on the rails last before they became tattered?

Here are some responses:

1. Is this a new problem? If so, then you did something wrong or different rigging it. First check that the rudders are not on backwards. I did that last year and thought someone bent the tiller arm. Then I thought some more and took the whole thing off the transom and switched sides, and TA DA! problem solved.

I think I've had it since I've had the boat, I never noticed it as much untill the other day since I did alot more sailing the other day, and in higher winds as well, so I really felt my arms sore today.


2. That is the funkiest tramp installation I've seen. How's it working out?
It's GREAT. My boat had alot of customizations(look at the extra set of cleats on front cross bar, not sure what they were for for example) on it before me and it came like that, the tramp is excellent and is much better than the original hobie design, and it feels GREAT! I recommend it.

3. How long did the neoprene on the rails last before they became tattered?
Not sure, it's a thick non-skid surface, but I've gorilla glued it back on and it's held fine. It wasnt a matter of the surface wearing down, but rather just the glue that held it in place had gotten weak.

And Karl, no, they only lace up one side.

Try measuring the distance between the two leading and trailing edges of the rudders when on the boat and locked down, as they should be pretty close to equal.
Also, in the picture I noticed your downhaul line is broken. Fixing it may not solve your heavy tiller, but it will add efficiency to the sail.
And don't forget to remove the mast step pin before shoving off.

I didn't see the other side of the picture.