Hobie 16 rudder motion

Neighbor gave me a 16 footer. Am excited to get in water. Have totally reconditioned except for rudders. Not sure what the action of the cam should be exactly. Mine does not rotate at all. It appears the notch in the cam should be engaged when rudder is down but mine will not allow the rudder to be latched. It hits the top of the cam. I think it would break if forced. I am unable to remove the delrin screw to access the spring and plunger. They appear to be frozen in place. I noticed they are also set at different depths varying about 1/2 inch in the casting. I assume there are 2 latch positions for the cam-rudders down and rudders up. The delrin screw has a slot about 1/2 wide but a large bladed screw driver will not budge it and it begins to crumble. I doubt it was ever moved. Closest dealer is Annapolis MD but I hate to drive an hour to get there if I can resolve this. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Ron

Sounds like the cam is locked in the “down” position. Get a large flat blade screwdriver and wedge it between the cam and plunger and then use the screwdriver to flip the cam back to the “up” position.

Frozen delrin screw is very common and and lots of discussion on this site about it. Best approach (IMO) is to drill it out with a 5/8” drill bit and then chase the threads with a 3/4” tap (or 3/4” bolt with a couple notches cut in the end) to clean up the threads. Then replace the screw and use a liberal amount of grease on the threads to prevent it from seizing.

sm

It does sound like your cam is down. I had that last week, and did as SRM described to get it flipped up again. Then I flushed it with fresh water while I worked the cam back and forth - not so far that it locked down again, but almost - and then lubricated it all with sunscreen because that's all that I had around. It behaved for the rest of the week, but I now want to disassemble it all and overhaul it.

If your rudder lockdown system is WAY out of adjustment you can slam the tiller down and get it to lock in, but it's hell on the cams and only works if there's a lot of free play (which shouldn't be there).

There is a Hobie multitool 83103 which can help you flip the cam back up (among other things). Good to have on the boat.

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'00 H16 #104691
'78 H16 #32692 ex-rental [gone]
Old Holsclaw trailer
My Hobie 16 pages

I've always done just what SRM said, you can easily do it yourself. On much older boats after drilling and tapping, I've replaced the delrin screw, spring and plunger. Liberally coat with plumbers silicone grease and it will always be easy to adjust.

I would get a cam replacement kit, if it already doesn't have sister screws holding the cam in. Being locked down incorrectly, and probably a boat with some age on it, odds are high that they won't work reliably anyway. You can do that before you decide to replace the pressure adjusting screw, and then decide if that is needed.

Deformed cams don't work worth anything. If the rudders don't lock down properly, a 16 is really aggravating to try to sail. Well tuned, and you can steer it with 2 fingers in any conditions. They have to lock down tight easily, in the right position, and be easy to unlock.

Depending on what year the boat is, there is an adjustment on top of the rudder arm to take the play out of the system. When the rudder is down in place, the adjustable piece bolt is loosened and then should be slid forward into the cam and the bolt tightened. If it isn't adjusted right, the rudder can kick up without moving the cam. When it happened to me out on the water, I would loop the main sheet around the cam and pull it until it popped up, then lock the rudder down again.

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Howard