Hi Rick, Sailboat racing on the Potomac. Almost sounds patriotic. Thanks for the info. I will key on that gas strut detail when I get into the market for a kickup. Tom B On Sat, Mar 2, 2013 at 6:54 AM, Rick Davies <jdavies104@gmail.com> wrote:
Tom,
I understand that Idasailor is now Rudder Craft, and the unifoil they sell is the same as the Idasailor kickup. My rudder is an Idasailor from 2005, bought by the original owner. Maybe that was before they put the gas strut on. It sounds as if the new one is what I need. I sail on the Potomac near DC, where there's a lot of thin water, and wrestling the rudder back down manually when you're sailing alone in a breeze isn't a lot of fun. It also loses you a lot of distance real fast in a race.
Rick M17 #633 Lynne L
On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 2:51 PM, Tom Jenkins <tjenk@gte.net> wrote:
Hi Rick, I bought an Idasailor rudder back in 2007, and it drops down immediately after hitting an obstruction (which admittedly has happened only rarely. If I raise the blade slightly above horizontal for some reason (e.g., to remove grass), I have to raise it a few inches with the rope and turn it loose to let gravity drop it to vertical position. I have not experimented, but I am guessing that the blade would drop to vertical when the tip is at or below the level where the keel would ground, and probably a great deal higher. I have hydraulic rams on my unit. Maybe your rudder is older than mine, but your boat is newer.
Sorry I don't know anything about Unifoil products.
Tom M17 #626 Scintilla
On Feb 27, 2013, at 5:08 AM, Rick Davies wrote:
I'd like to poll the group on experience with the Unifoil hydraulic kickup rudder. I'm using an Idasailor kickup without the strut, and it's a bear to get back down after it partially retracts from hitting bottom, which is quite a problem when the wind's blowing. Does the Unifoil reset itself after hitting an obstacle? Or do you still have to haul it back down with the control line, like I do now? It's a big investment to make, and I'd like to be sure it's going to be an improvement over what I have now.
Thanks for any information anyone can give,
Rick M17 #633 Lynne L