In my last trip out through Mooloolaba mouth I had some issues with my twist and stow jumbo sailing rudder. When ever I was peddling fast, going against strong current or going over a big wave the kayak would start turning to the left. I could turn the rudder control freely but turning it all the way left would result in me going straight and turning all the way left would result in me doing very tight circles. As it only happens in potentially dangerous conditions I could not stop, climb over the back and have a look on the Hobie Outback to see what was happening.
I tried replicating the issue by using a towel to apply pressure on the rudder while I tried to turn the rudder but did not find any slippage. I then inspected the rudder pin buy pulling it out but found it to be straight so put it back in again. Feeling a little dumbfounded I just played around with the twist and stow part of the rudder, stowing and deploying. I then realized the recently installed Jumbo sailing rudder does not lock firmly down into place and with light pressure to the rudder, lifts up and starts to turn.
It seemed that when ever there was pressure to the back of the rudder it would lift up and begin to twist, resulting in the outback to start turning left. To fix this I tightened up the cable that pulls the rudder down into place by removing the screw, pulling the cable tight and putting the screw back in. It took a few tries to get the right pressure and ended up doing the tightening while the rudder was stowed.
A test in strong currents found the problem fixed! This was a relief as it was something that I did not find much information on the net and was running out of ideas to fix.
Dan
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