Steering with rudder in the 'trail' position

When coming into the beach I often need to raise my rudder into the 'trail' position to avoid banks of weed. This is when I lose directional control and the steering becomes impossibly heavy, but in that position the rudder is well clear of weed interference. I realise that the pressure on the rudder is not compensated by having a pivoting balance point, but has anyone come up with any bright ideas to steer relatively comfortably when the rudder is in the trail position?\Cheers Ian

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Sadly, the laws of physics are against you. I have just emerged from a nightmare scenario, where the rudder would not go fully down, due to twisted internal up/down lines. Stupidly, it took me some time before I found the cause, but before then, I suffered from incredibly hard resistance on the tiller arm (as soon as the forward edge of the rudder blade is no longer acting as a "counter-balance, the area normally in front of the hinge line now ADDS to the force required, rather than subtracting).

The huge forces I was putting on the short tiller handle resulted in the rudder line detaching from the rudder.... not good.

Sorry, but I cannot think of any way you can overcome the forces. May I suggest that you see if leaving the rudder in the fully down position, BUT uncleating the rudder-up line, might work as a compromise? If you feel that weed is caught on the blade, just temporarily raise and lower the rudder to clear it.

Hope this helps somehow.

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

Yes thanks Tony, I knew physics was against me, and yes I do come in with the down line uncleated and held fully down by hand. If I could make a drawing on this site I have an idea of what I might do to modify it,but perhaps on second thoughts...perhaps the master of mods fusioneng might get his fertile brain churning over with an idea or too.
Cheers and thanks...Ian

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You can sheet the sail out and pedal. Lateral sail load is what causes most rudder loads. A sail sheeted tightly causes the boat to want to head up.

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

Yes thanks Matt, by the time I am going through the landing exercise (we have a lot of weed close in shore) I have withdrawn my MD from its slot (always tethered - when I lived in Darwin it cost me a new MD from my dealer to learn that lesson), raised my dagger-board and un-cleated my rudder as the water is shallow after passing the weed banks.
Of course there is always the paddle to steer and propel by I suppose.
Cheers Ian

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We sail in very shallow water all the time (quite a bit of Sarasota bay and most of key west and the keys are only 6-8 inches deep at low tide).
Plus I have broken many rudder pins coming into shore (always self induced). What we do in shallow water is raise the rudder up and lock it in the up shallow position (tilted up around 10-15 degrees). This is also great when going thru the weeds on rivers like the Santa Fe river whick is chock full of weeds. The boat steers just fine in shallow mode, obviously in that position you are only using 1/3 of your rudder suface area so don't expect the rudder response to be like it is with the rudder all the way down.
Workin the rudder this way when in kayak mode without the mirage drives in, when traversing very shallow and weedy rivers, and running mild rapids (using the double ended paddles) helps the boat track nicely.

Actually we use our centerboard as a depth finder all the time. I rest my arm on the center board handle and just let the centerboard drag on the bottom, when the centerboard starts coming up it's time to put the bungy on the mirage drive (btw you can pedal just fine with the bungy on), but I stop peddling thru and go to shallow peddling. I raise the rudder up to shallow position then just keep on sailing (right over 6-8 inch deep water). As soon as my arm feels the centerboard all the way down I remove the mirage bungy and lock the rudder back down. Doesn't slow us down at all.
Obviously if your flying along at 8-10mph in unknown waters it's probably a good idea to just leave the mirage bungy attached (just in case).
Another thing I do in strange waters or approaching shore is just hold the rudder down line by hand without latchng it so there are no suprises.
I think the most important advise is to rest your arm on the centerboard control knob, using it as a depth finder.
Hope this helps
FE
Edit:
If you mark the rudder up line (white paint) at the correct point for shallow sailing it saves you having to turn around to look at the rudder to verify it's in the correct position, (typically 2-3 inches of the blade is below the water line), (I'm old and have trouble turning around).

Many thanks Fusioneng; I will try that, and as Matt say the sail causes a lot of force on the rudder, so half a reef as well as the rudder 1/3 (and line marked) is well worth a try. Thank you gentlemen one and all.
Cheers Ian

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Yes when you have just the tip of the rudder in the water (a couple inches), steering is a little harder than normal but not impossible, and yes you don't want to oversheet the sails. I don't furl the sail typically, it seems to work ok to just relax the sail a little, and with the daggerboard up most of the way there is some crabbing going on (side slip). But typically when I hit shallows, I didn't know about them in advance, and all I want to do is get thru them. The only other alternative is to get out and walk the boat out of the shallows (been there done that, many times, embarrassing).
I don't look at the underside of my TI very often (I typically only flip it over and repair all the gouges and scratches once a year or so). But I suspect the bottom of my TI is scratched up pretty good from running around in shallows a lot.
This might be interesting to others, annually when I flip my boat over to repair the bottom, I clean everything with a single edge razor by swiping the blade back and forth rapidly (the plastic scrapes off like snow). I then fill in any deep gouges with my Hobie welder. I then wipe down the hull with Besttest rubber cement solvent (heptane (which melts hdpe)). I then put a thin krylon clearcoat on the hull followed by Rustolium Neverwet water repellent spray, (the neverwet doesn't stick to PE, you have to have the clear coat on there first, (this applies everywhere including stickers)
This stuff.


I have no idea how much the neverwet helps, but having a clean smooth slick bottom that repels water (less friction) seems to help me get thru those shallows a little easier.
FE

Thanks Fusioneng, you are indeed a "FONT OF USEFUL INFO". I am glad I don't have the shallow water you have to put up with. Where I sail, Victor Harbor in South Australia, we get into quite deep water with quite often 10 to 15 foot long lazy swells...Fabulous fun but one keeps a weather eye always to windward. Once you leave the beach here, next stop is Antarctica!!!

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https://www.hobie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=60647

Basically, it describes the outrigger canoe steering paddle I bought in case of rudder failure.

Been making a point of sailing with the rudder up and just using the paddle lately - to explore the limits.

I always use paddle steering for beaching now - one less thing to have to remember (raising the rudder).

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