Pulls to the left

We have a new getaway, and on a recent sail in moderate conditions, I noticed a very srtong pull to the left.. Nomatter what tack we were on, it was hard work to keep it from turning left! We checked the rudders and they seemed fine, so we switched them around, but there was no change. On a prt tack, if I lifted the port rudder almost clear of the water, the helm was neutral. The 'left' helm got much stronger when I did the same for the sb rudder. On a starboard tack, this meant strong lee helm. We eyeballed the hulls but didn't notice any problems. The right hull doesn't seem to have the crossbeam as far through as the left hull, vut evrything seems straight.. Any ideas?

interesting problem, at first flush it seams to me that the alignment of the rudders is off, you said you checked the rudders but did you check to see if there was any toe out or toe in? Also check that the vertical plane of the rudders falls through the vertical center line of the hull, you can do this quite easily with a 9" level.

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06 getaway -- always remember, man with both feet in mouth have no leg to stand on.

Thanks for the reply, Roy..

We took a good long hard look at evrything about the rudders.. If there is any toe, it is probably a very VERY slight toe in. As for the vertical, they both line right up with the mold lines in the hulls. I will check them officially tommorow with a level.

I did got a responce from Jacques at hobie today. He basically told me they havent experienced that sort of problem, and any helm issues would be due to bad rake on the rudders. He reccomended I have my dealer take a look at it and maybe switch the rudders out with a different set. Only other thing he says may cause that is twisted rudder, which sounds very unlikely.

My dealer wanted to look to see if the cross bars are flush with the outside of the hulls, and that the front crossbar screws are snug.

The front screws are snug, and the rear crossbar is flush.. but the center crossbar is NOT flush on the starboard side. It is recessed about a half inch . Whats odd is the endcap looks crooked! Does the getaway hull have black metal sleeves for that center crossbar hole? If not.. there is something very odd going on with that crossbar. The starboard hull may be angled outwards, like camber on a car wheel.

I didnt assemble the cat, my dealer did that for us.. I hope the problem is an easy fix. Im going to check it out tommorow morning before work, loosen the screws and tramp, and see if I cant get things sorted out.

what im really wondering.. how much is this affecting performance...

The flushness of the crossbar doesn't really matter. What does matter is that the stainless stops on the underside of the center beam and rear beam are seated onto the hulls. Crawl under the boat and make sure the hulls are seated onto the stainless stops.

Have you tightened the tramp since sailing?

Still though I don't think that having the hulls not seated on the crossbars would make it pull one way or the other. It's a strange problem. Can't wait to hear what it is.

Performance? The Getaway is made to sail pretty fast, be indestructible and carry a bunch of people and gear. That's the "performance" of the Getaway.

Hope your dealer gets it sorted out. Let us know what you find out.

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Thanks for the tip.. ill make sure to check that.

We have sailed it.. probably 10-15 times and tightened the tramp twice.

Only way I could imagine the hulls causing a problem like that is if the crossbar is tight at the front, but one hull is not seated at the middle or rear, the entire hull could be 'toe in'.

I really hope we can have it sorted for this weekends sail.. lake erie is getting colder every day!

As far as performance goes, I realise its not a racing boat, but it does go pretty good! With just two of us (me and my dad split the cost of the boat) we have no problem keeping up with any of the hobies we see out on the lake. Maybe its only because the fast sailors are too far ahead to be seen

I used to rent 16's years ago, untill the company sold the hobie.. That was a sad day!

Id love to get back into the performance of those 16s.. while a new one is a bit too pricey, theres a few used ones floating (hehe) around..

If hobies ploy was to get people (back) into sailing with an inexpensive, durable, easy to sail line of boats... and then entice them with MORE MORE MORE from the fiberglass line.. Its working.

Good luck sorting this all out.

The Getaway is a great boat!! One of my favorite things to do with the Getaway is pick a day when the NW swells are rolling in and take that sucker surfing. The Getaway bows are buoyant enough so that when the tops of the waves start to break, and they push the stern up, it doesn't pitch. It surfs really well on a 10' groundswell and 20kts.

Since the problem goes away when raising the port rudder... and gets worse when raising the starboards one... Sure sounds like a rudder blade issue to me. The port blade in this case seems to be the problem. This may have a twist or flatter foil on one side. Like Jacques suggested, if you can sail with another rudder on the port side, it may confirm this.

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Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

I checked things out on the boat.. All crossbeams are flush. The left hull looks slightly warped. It curves outwards, whereas the left hull does not.

Both rudders have slight concaves near the trailing edge on their right sides... My dealer has no spares to lend me. Would it be a bad idea to make a cardboard guide and sand/trim both sides even? I can do it in the shop.. That would void the warrenty on the rudders tho, right matt?

Looks like I won't have a fix for the weekend.

Shape away... no problem. If you can can't correct the problem, we can send a new blade of two.

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Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Boy the rudders would have to be quite a bit different to cause the boat to pull hard to one side.

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06 getaway -- always remember, man with both feet in mouth have no leg to stand on.