My '87 H23 came to me with a homemade tiller, which was about 5' long and loose as a goose. I bought a replacement on eBay which will need a bit of adapting in the form of cheek plates on the inside of the rudder head. So yesterday I took the rudder off and brought it home so I could work on it in the comfort of my garage. I took the thing apart and started cleaning things up and what do I find but stress cracks at the bottom of the aluminum rudder piece (which i understand are common on these boats). Fortunately, my son is an excellent welder and he was able to fix things up for me. Apparently, part of the reason for the cracks IMHO is because the boat was kept at a mooring and the rudder was left in the water to wag back and forth 24/7. There was no provision for a lift line, which I decided to add while I'm working on it. But the aluminum rudderhead fabrication is IMHO an abomination. Not only is it ugly, but it's flimsy and poorly built. The welding work is amateurish at best, and I can only surmise someone in the family designed or spec'd it out because anyone else would have admitted their mistake and redesigned the piece rather than letting a single boat be sold with one like this. I've designed and built side-plate style rudderheads for boats in the past and I wouldn't use anything less than 3/16" thick aluminum. Hunter used, what, 3/32"? And everyone knows even the best welding weakens aluminum. Did Hunter ever offer a retrofit rudder for the H23? If I keep this boat, that rudderhead has got to go! Rant off.