The European Blades from Catamaranparts (imported from VWM) come with rudders and stock made by Catamaranparts. It's a simple but effective system. Stocks are made from aluminium.

I think the rods are basically similar to at least one version of the US Blades. A rod on the top of the rudder has a pin which pushes into a hole on the top of the rudder arm. This hold the rudder down, but if the rudder hits something solid, the rod should bend and the pin pop out.

What's different is that the geometry of the blades, stocks and rods is such that the blades can rotate through more than 180 degrees. When you want to raise the rudders, you take the rod out of the rudder arm, pull forward to raise the rudder then push back and down to cause the rudder to flip upwards, until it is resting facing slightly forward. See http://www.formula16.org/component/optio...ageViewsIndex=1

This gets the rudders completely clear of the water. Most similar systems only pull the rudders up to the horizontal, and then reattached the rod to the rudder arm using a different hole and a clip.

I have the above system on my Blade and have no complaints. There's very little to go wrong. The only disadvantage I've found is that the blades are fairly easy to knock down whilst you're rigging the boat. On the other hand, you don't trip over them, and they don't get blown to the side when you're pushing your boat around on the land, as the would if the rudders were horizontal.

When it comes to simple-but-effective systems, I'm also a fan of the dagger rudders on the Stealths. Very easy to get up and down, and they allow you to have the rudders half-down for shallow water and still be effective.

Paul