i am considering altering my rudder system to eliminate the rudder cam. my idea is to remove the cam, carve a concave groove in the circumference of the rudder head, and add a pull cord that will rotate the rudder down and hold it tight against the rudder casting. the cord would be cleated to a jam cleat on the tiller. i have used systems like this on other boats, has anyone tried it on a hobie?

The Hobie 14 and 16 have a built in rudder kick up system. If you were to tie them down you would lose this safety feature. Both my hobies have properly operating rudder systems and they work great. (stay down when you want and pop up when you want) Please repost the reason you don't wish to use the stock set up.

Greg

H14,H16

i have a 14 and a 16, the 14 system is newer and has cam adjusters. it works. the 16 has the old style non adjusting system. i went to a lot of trouble to re drill, add slop reducing screws to the cams, etc, and had it working pretty good. then a rudder broke, i had to re do that one then one of the cams with the screw "shims " broke because it was weaker. i then tried swapping the tillers so i could use the 14 adjustable parts on the 16, one of the tillers refused to be removed so i gave up on that project. i should add that i am a tinkerer and boat builder- i like to design my own-and i like to solve problems by simplifying whenever possible. whoever designed the hobie rudder system deserves an honorary doctorate in engineering, however the manufacture of the (older?) parts seems to have been pretty sloppy-no two alike. i hope i can make an almost fantastic system more adjustable and less finicky.

My wife and I recently purchased an older hobie 14 turbo. It had not been looked after all that well and so after reading up on specs and how to set up the boat (we are new to this) and replacing tramp we now have a real fun boat to play with. My point is this. The rudders were not set up to original so I set about putting them back the way they are meant to be and the boat is now a pleasuer to sail.