Issues with new Sunfish

Sailor Matt

Sailor Matt

New Member
problem: too much friction at tiller to rudder attachment point (2014 'fish w/ wood foils); plastic/nylon shims provided do not stay in place, causing difficulty raising, lowering rudder; backing off lock nut does not help. solution: replace factory shims with round plastic/nylon washers of approx. half the thickness. I could not find the proper washers at the local hardware store, so I made some out of generic plastic 'Garage Sale' sign stock. testing results: two day sails without issues... much easier to raise/lower rudder at will. are the wood foils slightly thicker than the composite foils? anyone else have this issue?
 
I have not but I don't use the tiller to raise the rudder as it puts too much load on the wood. I have made some washers myself out of teflon. Very slippery compared to the plastic washers provided.
 
hmmm...good point. I was worried about damage to rudder from letting it kick-up on contact with object/bottom or bending of rudder pivot pin/gungeon from all the effort required to even lower the rudder. I sail in mostly shallow water and generally like to beach launch/land...
 
In lowering the rudder, I put a strong downward load on the tiller (while held at a 45° angle), and at the same time, "pump" the tiller up and down. Raising the tiller is the reverse (pulling the tiller). It's worked for me and my three Sunfish, my Porpoise II, and a borrowed Sunfish. (All different wood tillers and wood rudders).
 
Check the thickness of the rudder blade. It should be 3/4" but maybe these new wood blades are thicker where the
pivot bolt goes trough. If so, they are technically not class legal and maybe you have a beef with the supplier.

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
 
I have the same rudder bushings. I will sell two mailed to you for $2 and throw in 2 of the tiller bushings as well (that's 4 all together, 2 large diameter and two smaller diameter). Who needs 10 of these anyway.
 
signal charlie said:
Did you back off the rudder cheek bolt stop nut also?
Click to expand...
yup I tried that, but the supplied bolt is not long enough so as to engage the nylon locking part of the nut and backing it off further allows the nut to come loose. I remedied this by installing a longer rudder cheek bolt with enough thread to engage the self-locking feature of the nut, then trimming off the bolt flush to the end of the nut...this further leads me to believe that the wood rudder is slightly thicker than the composite...why else would the rudder hardware (tiller bolt, cheek bolt) be just a few threads too short to get a full nut? it is obvious the locking function of these two nuts is critical...
 
Alan S. Glos said:
Check the thickness of the rudder blade. It should be 3/4" but maybe these new wood blades are thicker where the
pivot bolt goes trough. If so, they are technically not class legal and maybe you have a beef with the supplier.

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
Click to expand...
thanks for the info...class legality does not concern me, just ease of operation...:)
 
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