Yesterday I came across this thread and immediately went out to check my tiller tubes. The arms bent out away from the centerline! Well, actually the tubes bend upwards and the upper castings bent away from the centerline. However, rudder alignment was good with a slight toe in.

I swapped things so now the tiller tubes are angled towards the centerline. But, I had do slide the crossbar endcaps out quite a bit to get decent rudder alignment. One's out as far as it will go and the other's about halfway out. This gives me even alignment with no toe in. I'm measuring the diff between the center of the rudders at the castings vs the tips with the rudders in the up position.

Tiller crossbar is 75" and rudder to rudder distance is 83 1/2". It's an '83 H16.

So my questions are, is this the correct tiller crossbar for an H16? And if so, is it normal to have to slide the endcaps out so far to get good rudder alignment?

Thanks in advance for any insight!!

I'll let someone who knows for sure answer your measurement questions.

But I wanted to mention that to measure tow-in the rudders need to be down and locked. Then measure the difference between fore and aft pf the rudder blade at it's widest point.

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

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Quote

But I wanted to mention that to measure tow-in the rudders need to be down and locked. Then measure the difference between fore and aft pf the rudder blade at it's widest point.

Well thanks for that info! I looked all over for the article that talked about measuring with the rudders up. It even had a picture. Of course now I can't find it. I measured with them down and the end caps moved way back in to get a 1/8" toe in.

When I was racing 16's some of us would even raise the sails with the boat on the cat trax or trailer, sheet them in and then measure the rudders while the boat had a load on it. Not sure if it helped, but we would try anything we thought might help.

The quick and dirty way is, with both rudders up and the tiller extension sideways resting on the sidebar, sight down the trailing edge of one rudder and point it at the tip of that hull. Then walk over to the other rudder and sight down the trailing edge and see where it's pointed. It wants to be pointed a couple of inches inside the tip of the hull. Adjust. Repeat.

The point of the tiller extension is to keep the rudders from moving after you sight one and before you sight the other.

Damon has it right; rudders down and locked. Here it is from the horse's mouth:

http://www.hobiecat.com/s…t/tech/rudders_cams.html

(Scroll to the bottom of the page.)

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Dave Wilson
Hobie 16, Hobie 14
Tampa, FL
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