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PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 5:21 am 
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Location: Central Coast NSW Australia
I received the bungee rudder upgrade the other day and even though I haven’t been having the rudder lock down problems others have reported I thought I would fit it just in case. :wink:
I often have to launch in very shallow water so I thought I’d see if I could work out a way to lock the rudder down without having to get out of the seat. Here is the prototype. It will be tested this week on water but so far testing on land has proven the principle works. It basically involves mounting a micro cleat to the rudder housing and routing the line up to the seat so that it can be locked/unlocked when needed. This works the same as the bungee mod because the cleat is attached to the same part of the rudder housing. There is no extra tension on the steering lines when locked down.
Following Hobie’s instructions I drilled holes in the rudder in roughly the recommended locations so that I could always revert to the simple bungee fix if needed. I spaced the holes to fit the Triangular Mini Eye which is held in place with countersunk screws.
Image

The cleat is a temporary mount which will be made more permanent when I know it works. The angled spacers will need to be improved.
Image

When there is no tension the rudder can be raised normally.
Image
Updates to follow. :)


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PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 7:14 am 
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Location: Texas
Cool stuff. Seems like that will work great!

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PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 4:52 pm 
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Location: Port Macquarie, Australia
Looking good Stringy!


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PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 4:55 pm 
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Location: Kailua 96734
Bonzer mod, Stringy. Very clever and functional.

You'll experience more drag with that setup, but it's temporary.

Or let's hope so.

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PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 8:37 pm 
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Location: Central Florida
Great work Stringy!

Only minor problem I see, is your mod has one bungee pulling where Hobie's mod has two (twice the strength). Maybe double up the bungee and pull it to the Triangular Mini Eye. Another possibility is just use a stronger bungee.

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PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 8:38 pm 
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Location: Escondido
Stringy, another brilliant idea! 8)


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PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 11:22 pm 
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What a great idea, I wish I had it this weekend after running into low water in the middle of Gladstone harbour on the way to Curtis island. I needed to get out and release the rudder but then no chance to lock it back down. Steering was still possible but alot harder for me without the bungee.


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PostPosted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 6:13 pm 
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Location: Hilo, Hawaii
Clever idea bro. Beats the extra time being the in the water to deploy. I wonder if you need some sort of flarehead to help work the cleat line?

Looking good...

cliffs2yak


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 1:57 pm 
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Location: Oceanside, California
Smart! I'll tell the guys to cancel the new rudder! Just kidding.

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 3:36 pm 
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Location: Saint Johns, Florida
mmiller wrote:
Smart! I'll tell the guys to cancel the new rudder! Just kidding.

Matt,

All kidding aside.

This looks like a much better temporary fix than the Honie "engineers" came up with.

I would not have to wade in 3 feet of water when I launch and trailer my boat.

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 4:17 pm 
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Yes, it looks pretty darn good... if he alters it to have as much hold down force. There are some minor issues I can see and would be a more complicated install / use... but pretty cool!

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 8:00 pm 
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Location: Kailua 96734
Stringy, noticed any difference in the starboard steering effort? Does the tiller seem balanced?

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 9:16 am 
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The load will be between the rudder and the cleat on the head. Should not make steering an issue.

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 03, 2010 11:16 pm 
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Location: Central Coast NSW Australia
Thanks for the positive comments and info offered. :)
We’ve been away since Sunday and had no Internet access.
We have been able to test out the rudder bungee mod on water and I’m pleased to report it works. I’ll now spend a bit more time improving the cleat mount and routing line.
Our first test was in kayak only mode and I noticed the difference straight away with less effort required to turn the rudder handle when the down line was not cleated but the bungee was. In kayak mode of course the forces aren’t much on the rudder but I did manage to run it aground and it moved back then popped back into place when freed. I couldn’t notice any difference in drag, though as Nohuhu points out there must be some. Our cruising speeds were between 3-4.5 knots as normal under pedal power alone.

The big test was yesterday:

Image

We covered around 35km in winds of mostly around 10-15knots with the odd 20knot gust. Our maximum speed was 7.5 knots. Not the extreme speeds others have reported but quick enough to test out the mod. The bungee held the rudder down well and yes Nohuhu the tiller did feel balanced. I only applied the usual lock down line to compare turning effort and it made it harder. We had a lot of tacking to do heading out and returning into the wind so the rudder got a good workout. Same effort required turning both ways. In the stronger gusts the usual weather helm was experienced but was easily corrected. I was surprised how easy it was to lock down into the cleat while underway and unlock when needed -even with my ‘Eiffel tower’ tripod in place! :wink:
Image

Now to improve the mount to make it more permanent….. :roll:

PS
Bob, Thanks. I think thicker bungee is the simplest solution if more hold down is required.
C2Y- Not sure what a flarehead is (fairlead?) but the bungee stayed in the cleat OK. I had the other end tied off to one of the cargo hold bungees.


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PostPosted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 2:31 am 
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What a sweet little run. Beating upwind turned out to be a great test of your rudder cleating system.

Nice to know it can survive the shallows too. And perhaps an occasional brain fart.

Well done.

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