I take them off.

Unless you have a relief system to hold the rudders in place and take the bounch effect out, I would remove mine. "Most accidents happen within 25 miles of home" just a thought..

Guys:

The wind and vibration will tear your rudders system up. Think of them as power steering. You take all the time to get it tweaked then destroy it on the way home. Plus it should be hard on the gudgeons? Take th off.

Doug

I use carbon rudders on my Tiger and take them OFF when trailering. Generally it is best to remove your rudders. Saves on wear'n'tear and you'll also get more life out of your rudder system.

OFF - Nobody over here would dream of leaving rudders on - except Hobie 16 or 18 sailors - which we don't have anymore <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Nuts in.

Did I just say that?

You gotta watch out for those Hobie 20 sailors, they need all the help they can get! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
That's what we do. Same set up as the 20, which BTW originally had four individual pins and someone had a better idea. I even removed the gudgeons to reseat and better align them for the long pins...to no avail. It's a bitch, but I take ours OFF.

Thanks everyone. Looks like the tally is 11 Off vs 3 On. Since it really isn't too hard to remove and reinstall them on the Nacra, I'll be removing them for now.

Hope to get some new pictures posted this weekend, so you can offer advice on my setup.

Dean

I solved this complex trailering issue by buying a lake home. Now, I leave everything on (except the trailer, that's useless now).

How do you re-install the rudders correctly??

When removing my rudders from the trailerbox I determine which way the tiller arm extention is angled ... secondly, I install the bolts holding the rudder blades to the castings from the outside to the in-boardside, (so not to be injuried when falling off the boat .. cut the extra bolt off) So the nuts are always on the "in-boardside" on my boat ... easy!

It may not be only about wear & tear, or time. I trailered w/ "rudders on" w/ my H-18, and w/"rudders off" w/ my P-19. You can tie the Hobie rudders "UP" to the rear crossbar, the Prindle has a line that holds the rudderblade up, if it breaks/slips you lose the blade by dragging on the ground.

.... then two things happened ... I started to add up the $$$$s' hanging off the back of my boat ... and I watched as a NJ STATE Trooper ticketed a guy who had his scull/rowwing shell on top off his VW Jetta for violating the "overhang" laws in the Motor Vechicle Code ( it did look a little funny). So with your rudders on are you legal??? remember it is measured from the trailers lights I believe ...
Now if someone runs into the back of your trailer and you are "in-violation" what do you think his Insurance Co is going to try and do ???

If you are going to trailer with "rudders On" get some RED rudder covers ... if you are going to take them off, get rudder covers as there is more damage done in the box being beat while driving then on the boat.

Don't forget the mast ...

Check out Murrays, OK.

Sail Flat, Sail Fast
Harry Murphey
H18mag/#9458, Fleet54, Div11
P19mx w/spin /#86, CRAC

With our Hobie 18, like you said, we tied the tiller crossbar down securely to the rear beam, and that held the rudders in the up position. With our Nacra 6.0, we had a skinny piece of line with a loop in the end of it for each rudder. Put the loop over the tip of the rudder blade and tied it up somehow to the rear beam so the rudder could not fall down.

I don't know the rules about overhangs. Just that you cannot obscure your trailer lights. And I know if the mast extends beyond a certain length, you are supposed to tie a red flag to the end of it.

HMurphey...
I added some red pinstripe tape to the port rudder arm and port side of the tiller crossbar. Takes the guesswork out of reinstalling your rudders correctly after removing them for transport.

Mary...
Most states have a 6 foot overhang law measured from the rear support of the trailer (rear hull cradles/rollers/etc.) to the end of rudders/mast/hulls (whichever protrudes the most). Anything beyond that requires a red clearance flag. Some states even require a red clearance light to be attached for night travel. Check your state trailering regs and make sure you're legal.

Make sure we're legal???

It's way too late for us to make sure we're legal. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Mary...
I know what you mean <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I've had a couple of run ins with law enforcement while pulling a boat. When I was coming back from the 1996 H17 Continentals (La Salle, MI) we detoured to Milwaukee, WI to visit family. I was pulling a triple stack of 17's. As soon as I crossed the IL-WI border I was followed by a WI state trooper. He pulled me over, pulled out a tape measure <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> and checked the width of the boat on the bottom rack (I was carrying the wings in the hull sockets). He measured from the elbow of one wing to the other. I was 1 inch OVER the WI width limit <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> I negotiated with him, removed the wings, tied them to the top rack and avoided a ticket.

The second time was on the same trip and it was my fault. I didn't have time to renew my trailer registration before hitting the road. I was pulled over TWICE <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> by the California Highway Patrol within 100 miles of home...after driving 5000 miles! They didn't hesitate to write me up. Those guys have keen eyes...better than the WI state troopers <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

We have several trailer registrations, and we renew them every year, but somehow we never seem to manage to get all the stickers on the plates and we have no idea what registration goes with what trailer. So we make copies of all the registrations and put all of them in all of our vehicles, so no matter what trailer we are pulling with no matter what vehicle, we always have a trailer registration that will match up with something. We HOPE. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I usually leave the rudders on for short distances. The other day the distance was so short (200 m) that I didn't even bother attaching them to avoid side to side swinging. The parking entrance was not much wider than the cat, delimited by some soft bushes, no problem if they touched the hulls. But ovbiously (after it happened of course) a little branch made the rudders swing to one side and as the cross bar moved to the side it entered more into the bushes and broke. Even if I was driving slow and looking back all the time, I didn't realize what was happening until I heard the noise.

I will still leave the rudders on for short distances, but certainly attached..

I think for some boats it is just a personal preference. I never had them offmy first hobie 18. The one I have now we always remove them. I have not seen any difference in wear.

Some of the higher end carbon may be different.

I suspect that trailering really really heavy Hobie rudders ON results in droopy Trailex trailers: These are well-used aluminum trailers that are humped in the middle, the kind that used to be seen...inexplicably often....at "Rick's Place".

You're kidding right? It is obvious to me that when traveling at high speeds, the rudders, because of their aerodynamic shape, actually provide lift to both boat and trailer, thereby effectively lightening the load. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

In fact, I fear that if we had hydrofoils of any kind attached to the boat when trailering, the whole rig would start to fly. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

The 5.2 has no effective way of keeping the rudders in the up position(at least not with the bungeesystem), so off they go! Its safer for the boards anyway