That's not strictly true, or fair, Flying_Cat. The only reason that I was having steering problems was because of misaligned, borrowed rudders. The AHPC rudders were borrowed from a Taipan, but naturally, the T4.9 tiller bar was too short for the Blade. So we had to use the Blade tiller bar adjusted down as narrow as it would go to get the AHPC tiller arms in far enough so that the rudders were parallel when centred. Unfortunately it wouldn't adjust far enough, so (when centred) the rudders had roughly 2cms of toe out on the leading edges when compared with the trailing edges. That is a LOT! Despite this the boat sailed and handled pretty well (considering).

The VWM rudder/stock combo as supplied looks excellent and JC seems to confirm this above. It was just a shame that the Blade's owner was working on them when I used the boat...

JC - sorry about the tiller extension. I just wasn't quite able to get it out of the way as we had one of our 'moments' and I bent the end off it! It was just one of those things....

We didn't use the barber hauler either when we were sailing and I agree with your comments. If it was 'on' then that was after we came ashore. While I obviously agree that the Blade was not as stiff as expected, I don't feel that it is a 'major' failing. A lot of the Blade's ride comes from that movement and the boat responds well enough to gusts etc. I prefer a boat to be stiff but it is something that can usually be built into a boat afterwards if necessary. I did just that with my first, very old, tired and tatty Tornado. Just a weekends work with an angle grinder, epoxy, glass, aluminium blocks and assorted tools. Where previously I had been able to lift one bow about 6" before the other bow started to move, I reduced it to about 3"...
It is also entirely possible that David Adams needs to torque his beam bolts up again as that boat has been out in several breezy days over the last few weeks.