south coast 22 rudder

[SailingLoto]

my sc22 has a folding/swing up rudder, for shallow water I assume. The problem is it wants to swing up when under way. This makes steering effort go way up and changes the steering response and how it tracks. I have tightened the pivot bolt, which helped for a bit, but still has creep. The lower section of the rudder seems to be weighted to hold it down. Any idea what is under the fiberglass? I was considering drilling a hole for a lock down bolt to solve this problem as I sail in deep water.

 

[shemandr]

My Bandit 15 had a kick up rudder and I had a similar problem. The locking bolt sounds like a reasonable solution. On my dory I used another line run to the front of the blade to put the blade forward. The line led up the rudder in a copper tube and exited on the tiller where it was tied.
I could have poured a lead insert to weight the bottom of the tiller. But I didn't want to drop my IQ any (We used to pour lead for diving weights all the time as kids).

 

[BILLNPR]

I had a Southcoast 22 too. Mine like the Mac26s had/has a line from front of the rudder blade up to the tiller which had a small cleat to tie it off to. This held the rudder down all the time. I have since changed to a auto release cam cleat from Duckworth supply, Auto-Release Clamcleats. This releases the rudder when it hits something. The tension for release is adjustable.

 

[Woreign]

I didn't like the uphaul/downhaul line on my Siren 17 rudder, so I modified it with a spring. I got the idea from a catamaran. Now the rudder stays down, but can easily give way if it hits anything.

 

[shemandr]

Clever.

 

[SailingLoto]

I had a Southcoast 22 too. Mine like the Mac26s had/has a line from front of the rudder blade up to the tiller which had a small cleat to tie it off to. This held the rudder down all the time. I have since changed to a auto release cam cleat from Duckworth supply, Auto-Release Clamcleats. This releases the rudder when it hits something. The tension for release is adjustable.

mine has a line to tie it in the up position.... it runs from the bottom rear corner to a cleat on the upper half.

 

[Project_Mayhem]

I had the same issue with my Starwind 19. It had a foam rudder which I found out will crush and crack the upper edge of the rudder if you tighten it too much. I let the foam around the pivot hole soak up some resin to add some strength when I repaired the crack in the fiberglass. I later found out that it was missing a line and associated hardware to attach it. I've seen a lot of dinghies including the sunfish with the spring but that self releasing cleat is a cool idea!