Swing/Kick-up Rudder
- Thread starter weh5748
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The under side of your tiller should be resting on top of a rudder head bolt and the pendant line on your rudder should be riding over the bolt just under that one. Also, the pendant line should be located inside the rudder head behind the Teak block on the pintle side.
The pendant line exits the rudder head over a bolt and goes under the tiller to clam cleat located under the tiller.
In order to pull the board down under sail you may need to relieve the strain on the rudder blade by heading up into the wind first. Then you can pull on the pendant line. I sometimes turn the the rudder from side to side in order to achieve the same effect.
I understand the auto release clam cleat. My problem is inability to fully lower rudder. I keep rudder raised at dock ... sail off with it partly (90%) down .. but can't easily lower to fully down which everyone above recommends I do. Pulling on line that runs under tiller doesn't lower it all the way. Too much friction and right angle over top of transom.
If there is too much friction for the blade to go all the way down, you are going to have to remove one of the rudder head plates and try to add shims. In other words, you need to widen the inside of the rudder head a little.
My problem with my rudder head was, it was a little too wide and my pendant line was getting caught in between the blade and the inside of the rudder head. Consequently, I needed to shave the Teak blocks down a little to get the rudder head a little narrower inside. It took some time, but I finally got it the way I needed it to be. Now, the line never gets caught. The bungee cord keeps the line tight when the blade comes up.
Don't sail your boat with the blade partially up. This puts strain on the blade and causes it to flex. If you have the original rudder blade that came with the boat, sailing with the blade up can cause it to crack and break in half. Those blades have a seam around them. They were molded in two halves at the factory, glued together and pumped with foam. They're noted for breaking. I know. I broke two of them back in the 1990s.
Keeping the blade raised at the dock, mooring, or at anchor is a good idea. I do this myself.
The rudder itself moves freely between the metal plates. Like when I stand in the water behind the boat its easy to push it all the way down. The friction i was referring to is in the line which is knotted lower in rudder, runs vertically up between the rudder and the metal spacers along leading edge of rudder, then makes a right angle to run horizontally along bottom of tiller where it can be cleated. There's just no mechanical advantage and sharp turns made by the line make it hard to pull lowering rudder fully, especially if there is forward motion of boat which there is as i pull out from dock. It just seems like a crazy design. I'm thinking about cutting a slot in top of rudder and carrying a small "stick" that I can push in slot to lower rudder without leaning my whole body out over the transome to force it down by hand.
That doesn't sound right to me. There has to be a logical explanation for that. My blade operates very easy when I pull on that line and I can hear it bottom out on the Teak block in the rudder head.
It sounds almost like the bolt that the blade pivots on, is located in the wrong place.
That pendant line needs to run up inside the back of the rudder head, behind the Teak block and ride over the second bolt as it goes to the clam cleat under the tiller.
What I would do is take the rudder off the boat and lay it on a picnic table with the tiller and pendant line attached and do some experimenting. Pull on the line and study it very carefully. Even though that line is riding over a bolt, it should still work as easy as mine. Do you need any additional pics of it? I brought my rudder home yesterday after I took my mast down and folded my sails. I'm planning on bringing my boat home this morning at the High tide.
My O-Day Mariner had the same type of rudder down-haul line as yours. It never worked well and was always hard to use. What I did was to drill two holes for a shear pin to hold the blade in either the up or down position. I then glassed a short "handle" off the upper trailing edge of the blade at a 90 degree angle which makes raising/lowering the blade very easy.
Yes Joe a quick photo that shows how the line is threaded thru the rudder assembly would be very helpful. Depending on results I will also remove rudder and see if there are other ways it could be "threaded" that I'm missing. Bill
Thanks for idea. If all else fails I may mount a simple handle on top. I need a quick sure way to lower that blade. Bill
The line just come up behind the Teak block behind the pintles and exits over the next bolt under the bolt that the tiller rests on.
On my rudder, the line exits over the last bolt because my tiller has two stainless steel plates that fit over the rudder head. The stops for these plates which hold the tiller up, are mounted on my rudder head.
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Thanks Joe. Pictures are great. I'm going up to the lake today and will compare my set up with yours and hopefully fix problem.
Bill
Bill
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