rudder managment

[gerald]

anyone found a really good way to keep the rudder up til you get in deep enough water?...I am thinking about a line and cleat but if you have a better idea?.....thanks in advance

gerald
dsII 10169

[psness]

I asked the same thing here a few months ago, thinking of doing the same thing you're suggesting. The reply I got was to tighten the bolt. It worked, just makes it a little tough to push it down by hand once in the deeper water....man do I miss the summer already. We had 6" of snow last week and are expecting 1-3" plus ice tomorrow.

[gerald]

a friend of mine has a capri 14.2 , his rudder has a locking nut with a handle on it to tighten/loosen it by hand but I like the idea of having it more securely fastened....

[Roger]

I drilled a 3/8" hole near the top back portion of the rudder blade, gelcoated the inside of the hole and rounded the shoulders a bit so that they would not chafe the line, tied a 1/4" line with a bowline through the hole and ran the line up the aftside of the rudder head, through a tube cleat, and tied a barrel knot (long stopper knot) at the terminal end. You can see a picture of my set up at this site:

http://groups.msn.com/RogerConrad/shoeb ... hotoID=127

Since then, I drilled another 3/8" hole on the forward side of the rudder blade and ran a bungee cord through it along the sides of the rudder head to the top. This spring loads the rudder blade so that when down, it can still kick up if you hit something, but will be pulled back down right away by the bungee. When the rudder blade is cleated up, there is just slight tension on the blade so that when the cleat is released, down goes the blade. Now I no longer have to reach over the transom to manage the blade.

The whole thing was a cheap fix, as the only thing I had to pay for was the tube cleat.