1981 Hobie 16 rudder upgrade

Can the upper rudder casting for a 1981 Hobie 16 be upgraded and replaced with the more modern adjustable one? I am looking to be able to tune the rudder rake and the older version does not seem to be adjustable in any way.

Yes,
About 10 years ago, I bought a used pair of adjustable upper rudder castings (including the tiller tubes) on eBay for my then 82H16 and they still work fine on my previous lower rudder castings that I also moved over three years ago to my current 84H16.

The best way to increase the rudder rake is to fill and re-drill a different rudder upper bolt hole (where the upper rudder casting connects to the rudder). In this picture, I have refilled the upper bolt hole twice and now have a good raked rudder hole location (I use this as a template for when I break a lexan rudder). I used JB Weld to fill the previous holes.









Bill Mattson wrote a good illustrated article in the May/June 1998 Vol. 2 Issue 7 of On the Wire titled: Raking Rudders -Correcting Helm on a H16

http://www.catsail.com/archives/v2-i7/feature3.htm

_________________
Tim
84 H16
82 H16
87 H14T
Tortola Sails: 115222
Blue Prism Sails: 88863
Clearwater, FL