Rudder alignment 26M

[winston]

Have suspected for sometime that my rudders are tending to drag when trying to achieve max sailing performance.

Had the Mac on the hard today and noticed the Rudders appear to be slightly canted towards the motor.

Thought I would be able to adjust the tie rods, but no way, all appears to be factory set, bolted to a fixed position!

Any ideas from my learned friends on this excellent forum.

[Ixneigh]

Have you tried sailing with one of the rudders up? If you experience a burst of speed, then maybe its worth going through the rudder linkage to reduce slop. Mine is so loose I dont bother worrying much over a minor bit of mal adjustment. Would be great of someone offered beefed up rudder brackets for the M model for sale.
Ix

[Crikey]

Winston, I've done a number of rudder play elimination mods on my that you can reference on this site. My latest tweak involved getting rid of the stock linkage bar entirely and handing it all over to my hydraulics. Because I have 'Heim' joints (aviation linkages) threaded into the aluminum connecting bars, it's very easy to set 'toe' properly and lock the adjustment with a locking nut. Another reason is one end has a quick-disconnect that lets me sleep at night without getting my feet hung up on the stupid giant chrome bar! (I'm 6'2")
http://s1121.photobucket.com/user/rottn ... 5.jpg.html
Ross

[winston]

Thanks for the feedback, definately see a speed improvement lifting one rudder, will try and reduce linkage slop by packing the tie rod bolts or reducing their length, wonder why Roger wasted money on such long bolts!
The adjustable aero linkages are very good but could be costly in NZ. Hyd. steering must be the way to go, again a costly mod.
Thanks again, our Mac's are still a very enjoyable unit, even with Roger's penny pinching bits.

[mastreb]

Yep, you can unpinch the pennies that you want without feeling like you've lost money.