Re: M_Boats: kick up rudder for M dink and M-17
I absolutely hated the standard kickup rudder/tiller arrangement on my M15, whereby the tiller is connected to not only the cheek blocks, but a piston which is connected to the rudder blade. So when you lift the tiller enough, that triggers the kickup and kickdown of the blade. Problem is, if you're like me, you sometimes want to lift up the tiller just to make a little room to change sides depending upon crew placement, or you might want to stand up to make a rigging adjustment with tiller in hand. Yes, yes, a tiller extension makes sense and I added one, but anyway what I did was to have John Owens at JO Woodworks re-engineer the whole thing in the "old school" fashion with a separate downhaul and uphaul, a cleat mounted on top of the tiller to keep the rudder up when launching or at anchor and a duckworks "breakaway" cleat mounted vertically on the cheek block to keep the blade down while sailing. The downhaul cleat has a tension adjustment for the amount of pressure it will take before breaking away to allow the rudder to float up if you run aground or hit an obstruction. For me, much, much better arrangement. I'm not knocking the Idasailor approach --it actually looks like a decent solution--but I just didn't have the means to go that direction. Can't post photos on this forum but if anyone wants more information or a photo, email me privately and I'll send you a pic. As long as your rudder is in good shape you could do this yourself, but I had John do it because the blade itself needed serious repair and I wanted a 2nd one built. John does EXCELLENT work, and no I don't own stock in his company :-) Neil
Hi Neil, I have an M17, and a previous owner cut 6" off the rudder. I have been thinking of adding a pivoting extension in a kick-up configuration. I would appreciate seeing your photos, and getting your specs. My email is doughenning1@gmail.com Cheers, Doug Henning On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 6:03 PM, <ndorf@surfbest.net> wrote:
I absolutely hated the standard kickup rudder/tiller arrangement on my M15, whereby the tiller is connected to not only the cheek blocks, but a piston which is connected to the rudder blade. So when you lift the tiller enough, that triggers the kickup and kickdown of the blade. Problem is, if you're like me, you sometimes want to lift up the tiller just to make a little room to change sides depending upon crew placement, or you might want to stand up to make a rigging adjustment with tiller in hand. Yes, yes, a tiller extension makes sense and I added one, but anyway what I did was to have John Owens at JO Woodworks re-engineer the whole thing in the "old school" fashion with a separate downhaul and uphaul, a cleat mounted on top of the tiller to keep the rudder up when launching or at anchor and a duckworks "breakaway" cleat mounted vertically on the cheek block to keep the blade down while sailing. The downhaul cleat has a tension adjustment for the amount of pressure it will take before breaking away to allow the rudder to float up if you run aground or hit an obstruction. For me, much, much better arrangement.
I'm not knocking the Idasailor approach --it actually looks like a decent solution--but I just didn't have the means to go that direction.
Can't post photos on this forum but if anyone wants more information or a photo, email me privately and I'll send you a pic. As long as your rudder is in good shape you could do this yourself, but I had John do it because the blade itself needed serious repair and I wanted a 2nd one built. John does EXCELLENT work, and no I don't own stock in his company :-)
Neil
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