My ears began to burn and my nose began to twitch .... someone mention my name????

Hi Bob and Hi Derrick,

How's it going???

Derrick, have you researched some of my previous posts here on 'CatSailer' about the P19(MX)? Have you sailed on a P19? It's one of the best, smoothest sailing beach cats there is ... and the way the spray from the leeward bow makes pretty rainbows in the sunlight .... awesome. Its like you are making you own personal rainbow, it makes me smile everytime it occurs.

Thats the spiritual aspect, now onto some technical issue ....

First check you front crossbar for stress/fractures/cracking at the end of were the dolphin striker attaches to the crossbar near the hulls. You will find a post on how to reinforce and stiffen this area of the crossbar but it must be done before it fractures.

The issue w/ the origonal 'short' rudder blades is when you are reaching along the leeward bow is driven deeper into the water and the sterns lift up .... until the bow is actually deeper in the water then the rudder blade. This means the rudder blade is in 'disturbed' turbulent water w/o any laminar flow over the rudder blade .... this results in ... NO HELM CONTROL!!!! You find yourself on a screaming beach cat and you can not steer. Now this is a minor issue until you are in a fleet of other boats (like P19's) racing along and you notice the guy in front of you looking at their rudders and looking around nervously ... and the guy in front of him is also looking at their rudders and nervously looking around ..... and the guy in front of him is .... And everyone is praying the samething ... Please Lord, don't let anyone screw up ....

Now the simple solution is that the rudder blade must be longer, this can be done several ways. The 'origonal' P18 square bottomed rudder blades were longer and some owners have converted to them but they are getting hard to find. You can extend your P19 blades cutting off the last 1", hollowing out the inside (3-4"'s), adding a wooden core shaped to fit inside the hollowed out blade, and then re-skin w/ epoxy and fiberglass cloth. Or you can purchase the new longer 'elipitcal' blades ... but .....

The new blades have a habit of splitting along the seam from the top down. The blade is manufactured by making the two fiberglass sides seperately , then they are placed in a mold and injected w/ a "filler. Think of the filler as a "putty". The splitting at the rudder head along the seam is caused by internal shear stresses generated by the blade deflecting/bending. (Example: Place your palms together, and slide one palm against the other while tring to curve your fingers to one side or the other ... see what happens???) Look carefully for the seam cracking at the lock down pin up and over the head of the rudder blade. This can be prevented by locking the two sides together, I did this by drilling a pattern of 18-20 3/8" holes from side to side and installing 3/8" wooden dowels set in WEST Epoxy. Sanded them flush (also removing the gelcoat) and I also using 3" wide fiberglass cloth tape sealed the seam w/ two layers of epoxy and tape/cloth. Then I the re-skinned the head of the rudder blade (I needed the room to fit into the rudder casting after the re-skinning hence the removal of the .10"/side of gelcoat earlier.) When I re-skinned the rudder head I did each side seperately making sure to lapp the cloth over to the otherside covering the seam ... sanding and fairing in between. (that makes 4 layers on the seams) The rudder blades have held up for +5years now w/ no problem. I course when I had to do this my blades were already split (one quite badly, so first I had to bond the pieces back together first w/ epoxy and clamps), so I had to do a little extra so salvage the blade vs a new 'out of the box' blade. You maybe able to just 'dowel' the blade, seal the seam w/ 1-2 layers ....

I also filled the lock-down pin so as to be more rounded and sloped where it locks into/onto the casting. Makes locking down the rudders easier.

Oh, before I forget .... my boat ... serial #SURE0231B686 .... sail#86 (origonally and still current)

If you have any questions research my old posts or contact me and I'll try to answer them

HarryMurphey
TheMightyHobie18(Mag)/P19(MX)