My son and I started sailing his new-to-us H16 a a month ago on the first warm day here and we are having a blast. He crewed his first race with a friend from Michigan (Thanks again Tim!!!) in the OCRA Regatta, Mar 5-6 and had a blast.

We took his boat out this past weekend in some pretty heave air and had a problem with one of the rudder locks... It wouldn't stay down! I beached the boat and, upon closer inspection, found that the plastic rudder lock was mangled where it is supposed to hook into the rudder casing and hold it down. I removed it from and worked it back into useable shape with a pair of pliers and a screwdriver and it seemed to work ok for the rest of the day.

When we bought the boat, it came with a tacklebox filled with all sorts of spare parts, shackles, plugs, springy things, pins, rivots.. everything and one already busted rudder lock.

Is this a common occurance? Is there something wrong with my rig that makes it prone to eating these plastic parts, or is this just something to keep spares on hand for when they fail? Perhaps I am doing something wrong when locking the rudders down to cause this to happen?

Thanks in advance for your help.

P.S. I am also interested in the history of this boat. I was told it was purchased from the Nationals and has won quite a few titles. Is there a way to resraech the history? It is Sail 903 and bears the name Two Conker :-)

The cams do wear out. They needed to be greased to keep everything sliding together properly. (the cam faces needed to be greased, as does the plunger in the lower casting) If you have the adjustable rudder castings there is a bolt on top of the upper rudder castings, and when you replace the cam, loosen that bolt and with the rudder in the locked position and slide it as far forward as possible. Non- adjustable castings? Everything might be worn so that nothing fits together tightly anymore. The rudder will have to be redrilled to get the pin in the upper casting tight into the cam. I'm not sure what you should use to refill the old hole with to redrill the rudder blade.

Try posting on the Hobie forum too.
http://www.hobiecat.com/community/index.php?sid=e6458f9057e7c7e9dc2ea6bc8e15b64b

There is a bolt on top, so they are the adjustable type. The prior owners seem to have added every upgrade available at some point to this boat. Any recommendation on the type of grease to use?

The boat is a 1989 Nationals model, the last year of Hobie Cat Company provided boats. It was purchased after the event by Phil Wadsworth, at the time a native of Columbus, OH.

Here's Phil's bio from the South Carolina Manufacturing Extension Partnership:


Phil was a good sailor, but not a great one. He got married in the early 90's and his wife did not enjoy Hobie Cats as much as Phil did, so they transitioned to a larger catamaran (an F-24, I believe). After that, we lost touch as we no longer saw him at regattas.

The boat's name is derived from the Britsh term for a buckeye (conker). It's "Two Conker" because that was his second Hobie 16.

The '89 Nationals boats are notoriously heavy. I owned #937 and it weighed well over 350 lbs (320 is minimum).

Amazing...How did I know Matt would have the answer.

I just happened to know the guy - but I haven't heard from him in years.

It's scary what you can find out about people these days just by using Google.

Are you familiar with Murrays.com? They are a great source for cat parts. See "Rudder Cam Kit" item #01-2050 (listed under catamaran / rudders, etc). I would drill out the old casting carefully to the exact size needed for the new sister screws, then replace. Do not let the drill spin free as this will give an unwanted angle to the new cam. I usually replace these on a need be basis which is whenever one begins to fail which is now rare. No more drilling but just unscrew the sister srews and replace with new cam. I do lube every time I sail with Harken McLube.
Jim
F18
H16
Sunfish