Hobie 14 rudder issue

I am new to sailing, I sailed a hobie wave at a resort when my wife and I went to Jamaica and liked it so much I bought an old hobie 14. I figured out how to set her up more or less, but when I got her out on a lake near my house, the rudder kept pulling extremely hard. If I let go, she would turn, after returning home I looked and realized if my left rudder was straight, my right one is pretty significantly turned outward. Some people say it can be adjusted, but I can't figure it out. It doesn't appear bent or anything. Any advice will help greatly, I wanna take her out again soon but don't wanna fight her so much.

Rudders are on backwards (port is on stbd and vice versa). The tiller arms should both angle towards the centerline of the boat.

That and/or the rudders are not locked down.

I think you are completely right, after looking at it, it appears that the rudders had been removed for maintenance and installed incorrectly. I did however find when removing the tie rod between the rudders, that the right tie rod end bolt is bent. so replacing that tomorrow. However, when I took it out on the lake, I think I did not have the rudders locked down properly, I locked it down in my driveway, and it is "really" locked. I can't get it back to the straight out position. How do I get it back to the straight out position? Do I just lift up on it until it pops up?

You should be able to pull the rudder back and up to release the cam. If it's really stiff,try soaking the lower casting with WD-40 or a similar penetrant beneath the rudder cam to free up the plunger which locks the cam. Especially on saltwater boats, the plunger can get jammed up by salt and corrosion, causing the rudder cam to stick in the down position.

If after fixing the known issues your rudders still aren't perfectly straight, you can install one of these: http://www.murrays.com/50-60400011.html I put one on my old 14 because the tiller arms were bent from a previous owner and I didn't feel like replacing them. It worked out well. As far as the stiff rudders go, get a BIG flathead screwdriver and you can loosen that up a bit. There's a plastic screw that tensions a spring that you can access from below the rudder casting. Unscrew it a bit to relieve a little of the rudder cam tension. You still want enough tension so the rudders lock in the up or down positions, but not so much you can't move them when you want to.

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2014 T2
past: 1974 H14