Anyone here have experience with these?

Dotan Rudder System

Yup, I was on the ground crew for Mike Krantz for that Tybee 500. I think it's a neat system but you should contact Mike krantz at layline or David Lennard on here for their opinions. I helped with the boat but they used them. BTW that's Mike and David in the picture on that site.

That is a sweet lookin ride. What boat is that?

cc

Even has some rooster action going on. Is that what clued you in?
<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

F18HT

He knows, he owns one. He is just being a smart a--. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Not a Jav 2? Doesn't look like it has a headsail and the boards are way aft...

It is a Bimare Jav2 18HT

And it is a sweet ride. 15+ kts today. solo. and i was doing 18kts with the kite. wow. I went over because I couldn't jibe fast enough. Actually I jibed plenty fast I just could recover fast enough. rookie. Its sailing a tiger by the tail!!

I've seen them up close, and the kickup action is interesting. The whole thing is heavy but it works.

I'm not crazy about the foil shape. One of the other HT sailors complained that he couldnt get the rudders balanced and it ruined the feel of the boat downwind.

They feel sluggish on the HT compared to the stock rudders. And they are heavier than stock.

It worked very well for what we needed - a system that could be used to beach launch and retrieve through the surf, and also had a method for clearing weeds and debris quickly. We and several other teams spent a year developing our own rudder systems, and after it was all said and done we opted to chose the Dotan system for our boat. I have no vested interest in the product (even though the site has me listed as a US dealer, I haven't been in several years...)

Personally I think that modifying the existing rudders and rudder stocks, using a single rope and a clam cleat worked the best on the HT's rudders. It is a simple, cheap mod that works well.

The rope and cleat method works well enough around the bouys (it was one of our initial designs), but for long distance racing, it was not an option. Just a little creep, or line settling in the cleat was enough to generate significant weather helm. It also was not as quick to raise and lower the blade to clear weeds.

Yeah, I second that. Any creep causes it to get heavy. However, with a 2:1 purchase on low stretch high tech line it isn't too much of a problem. You can get a lot of pull on them. You can clearly tell when it has slipped a little though.

How is your 2:1 set up? I have what I presume is the original Blade set-up with the direct pull down.

A friend with an HT copied my Blade set up.
I took a bunch of pics and will post them sometime soon on the F16 forum. Do you have pics of your setup?