Anyone know where I could get some rudder tendons with a line set in the middle, because I've already broke 3 rudder Tendons for my Nacra F16?
Maybe steer less?
To actually answer the question, APS has rope core universals http:/
No reason you should have broke any after 1 season of sailing. I sailed my infusion for 2 years (including a tybee) with no issues. Maybe there is something going on with the angle of the tiller on the F16? If Kirk can lay off the Coors Light for a minute he might be able to tell you what you're doing wrong.
If you really wanted a rope in it, it wouldn't be that hard to put one in yourself, but it would probably weaken the
tendon
more. There is definitely nothing on the market of the right diameter with a rope in it.
How much of the rubber is showing between the tiller cross bar and the rudder arm? If there is to little it will put to much stress on the rubber piece. You may have to cut some off the rudder arm or tiller cross bar to make them fit right. I have had to do that on a few boats to get the rudders aligned right. Also pre drilling a hole before you put the screw in helps.
Yes, your cross- connector tube is too long
I second what Dave says. You should see at least an inch of the rubber piece between the rudder arm and the cross bar. If you don't see that much, you need to shorten your crossbar and realign the rudders. Properly setup, you should get multiple seasons out of those tendons (I've got about 5 on my F18).
Geez, try your local Nacra dealer. <img src="<>/smirk.gif" alt="smirk" title="smirk" height="15" width="15" /> Ya know, the one you bought the boat from.
<img src="<>/wink.gif" alt="wink" title="wink" height="15" width="15" />
I guess he is a little disappointed in his dealer if he set the boat up wrong. The quality control on Nacra is slim to non. Every boat I have gotten from them has had some kind of issues. When you spend 20,000 on a boat you really don't expect to have to get out the hack saw and dremel.
I think he's down there in the land of Captain Kirk @ Key Sailing...that should be a pretty easy part to get from them.
If the ahpc boats aren't set up by a dealer, there would be a grocery list of issues. Probably true of all of them, when you know what needs to be double checked, trimmed, or whatever its no big deal. Things get over looked as well. Sh!t happens, and people can get disgruntled for some strange reasons too.
I've had four Vipers from new. Only one hit the water with zero issues, and I spent two solid days building that boat.
I think Kirk would not even know how to sail if you took the Silver Bullet from him. It's sad he can do so well in that condition against the rest of us (being sober).
Honestly the tendons made for the Nacra F16 aren't rubbery enough. So Randy and I have decided to order more rubbery plastic pieces that offer much more bend so we'll just modify the tendons.
So the tendons used on the Infusion, Nacra 20, Nacra F17, etc. for the last 12 years aren't good enough?
Broken rubbers are no laughing matter. Alot of you guys Dad's will attest to that.
On that note, I never broke one on the N-20 and only changed them out once in the twelve years that I had it. That was also doing ALOT of mileage in distance races.
You've gotten the right advice, but if you want to re-invent the thing ,go for it.
The tendons are pretty stiff and do not feel very rubbery in your hands. I agree that there is an error in the set-up of your boat. We all know Nacras QC wasn't there for you already.
There was a batch of **** quality tendons that started in about 2009 and im not sure if they are all out of circulation by now.
I broke a lot of them in '09 and '10 and at one stage I was looking at older boats for their tendons to put on my new boats...
There was a bad batch of everything when you were working at nacra <img src="<>/wink.gif" alt="wink" title="wink" height="15" width="15" />
I had to contribute something!!
but seriously, they are aware of it and i know from teams still there in 2010-'11 that they were all carrying spares in their trailer as they were still failing.
It was just a bad mix of material from the supplier..
Yeah I hope that's not going to be the case for the nacra F17.
Broke one this year as well, lasted two years so not too bad I guess.
With Nacras its always a good idea to have some spare rudder parts (castings, casting-mount bolts, rubbers).