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=
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Mary...
I know what you mean <img src=
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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=
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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=
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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=
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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=
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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=
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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
I took out the bungee and use a unique line to raise and lower each rudder. It's very easy to keep the rudders up with a fast knot. It is the first thing that I do after landing on the beach where I usually sail, to avoid the waves pushing thre rudders. The tube edge has to be protected to avoid cutting the line, electric tape or duct tape works. I use this method only for towing very short distances. For longer distances (if ever) I would tie them up somehow. Before the mentioned modification, I used the same line to tie them in the up position. (facing up, not backwards)
This modification caused me a problem: the loop of the rudder line catched the end of the rear beam (hard to imagine, I know, but it happened). The line was too long, I shortened it and solved the problem.
I trailer with them on. I'm only 3 or 4 miles from my launch site, but I usually sail after work. I need to be able to setup quickly and get on the water before the wind dies down at night. That being said, I don't like the risk or them falling or the weight of them bouncing so I built a support for them.
Sorry no pics. The boat is 60 miles from here in storage so I'll try to explain.
I welded a
receiver
to my trailer. Actually a couple 2x4 stake holders for a utility trailer that have 8" or so of flat bar to separate them. It's welded at an angle that if following a straight line from my new 2x4 receiver it intersects with the rudder a few inches from the end of the rudder. I cut a 2x6 to fit in the receiver. Used a dado blade to put a notch in the other end of said 2x6. The rudder rides in this notch and I put a bungee over the rudder to keep the rudder from bouncing off the 2x6.
It's much more secure than either of the other 2 strap systems I've come up with for supporting the rudders. I'm no longer stressed out while driving the few miles of poorly paved roads to the launch. And they're very quick to put on and take off.
I just re-read that description... it's pretty poor so I've attached a paint drawing that's equally as poor as the verbal description. Hopefully between the two of them, you get the idea.
For this problem I take the jib sheet and tie a slip knot. I wrap this around a rudder so high it cannot slip down and pull tight to the rear beam, I go across to the mast and tie it down to beam and then to other side of beam and out to rudder.
This keeps the rudders up and the mast down. I then pull a bright flag into each of the knots at the top of the rudders.