I have the stock rudder on my 260 and have not had a problem with weather helm so far. I only purchased it this spring so only have one season of experience. I'm still learning and playing with seting up the rigging.
Prior to owning the 260 I sailed a Mac 26S classic (not the motorsailor) for 6 years. I started off with the stock rudder on it and later bought the Ida rudder. The Mac had a lot of weather helm when I bought it. After buying a new set of sails, genoa tracks, traveller, then tuning the rigging and setting up the rudder so it was always down completely the boat sailed great without any weather helm issues. My next big improvement was to buy the Ida rudder. I thought the improvement was only slight, I think if I had started off buying the Ida rudder I might have been happier because it might have compensated for the other things that really needed to done.
I have seen a number of boats that suffered from weather helm and the problem was either the rudder was lifting just a little (stretch in the downhaul line) or the mast had too much rake. I was always happy with my Ida rudder but kept the stock rudder on board because I was concerned the Ida might break.
I would not buy another Ida with what I know now. I helped a friend build a rudder for his boat out of baltic birch plywood, it was easy to do and I think bullet proof. He got to choose the foil he wanted. The cost was less than $100. It performed as well as the Ida I think without the breakage concern.
just my thoughts, Bob
