Hi,
I was looking at this picture, admiring their extreme mast rake, when I noticed that their rudder(s) is/are up!
I initially thought it was some sort of fluke, but then I saw the same thing in another photo a few minutes later:
Their rudders (or at least the windward rudder) appear to be in the UP position while under sail. My H16 is an `81, and judging how brassed off the finish is on the cross bar, the tiller mechanism is probably original, so maybe something has changed, but I struggle to envision how you would do this while under sail. (Not to mention that I've had enough trouble with H16 rudder cams over the years that I would be hesitant to tempt fate by locking and unlocking them frequently.)
Can someone explain what's going on? Are they unlocking just the windward rudder? How does that work with the tiller? On mine, when the rudders are in the up position, the tiller crossbar sits several inches below the main rear crossbar, and having the tiller extension going up over that main rear crossbar causes the rudders to come out of the "locked up" position. I guess in both pictures the helmsmen are out on the wire, and in the second pic, you can see that he's holding the stick such that it's not touching the main rear crossbar, even bought the tiller crossbar (such that we can see it in this photo) is sitting below the main rear crossbar.
I guess I can see the motivation -- less drag is less drag -- but what are the practical mechanics of this?
Thanks,
Ian