San Juan 21 Class Association

Hello from Wisconsin,

I have the standard tilt up rudder that is held down by a series of large bungee chords. When I first got the boat back in 2013, the chords looked old and did not consistently hold down the rudder when sailing. I replaced them and the problem went away. Today I was out sailing in Mendota and we were traveling just over 6 knots in stiff wind and I noted the rudder was behaving odd. Looking down I noticed that the rudder was again slightly raised. We slowed down and the rudder went back to being in a full vertical position again. I guess i need to replace the chords again. Does anyone know how tight the chords need to be when installed? Last time, I just guessed at the tension and it seemed to work ok. However, does anyone know a better standard to use?

I just use trial and error. In the past I found an adjustable bungee at Home Depot like the one in this link. That was nice because it was adjustable on the fly. Most recently I just tied a knot and played with it while on the trailer so that it snaps closed and has enough resistance not to kick up while sailing.

https://www.amazon.com/BAR-Autotech-Ad ... 138&sr=8-6

Having the chords being adjustable would be a nice addition. My chord is a single length of 3/8” dia and is looped back and forth through the holes so that there are two lengths of the chord on each side of the rudder. The chord is secured to itself with metal hog ties. This was the way the original rudder was rigged and I just copied the arrangement when I replaced the chord. This method has no adjustability once it’s assembled.

I eliminated the bungee cords altogether. I mounted a Schaefer jam cleat approx mid point toward the top of the cheek (doesn't matter which side.) Then I ran a continuous line from the original hole on the leading edge of the blade, up to the cleat and back down to a hole which I drilled on the trailing edge of the blade. Under sail I make fast on the line from the leading edge to the cleat which provides secure vertical positioning of the blade. When beaching the boat undo the line and fasten the line coming from the trailing edge to the cleat which fixes the blade horizontally. No more worries about bungee fatigue!

That approach sounds interesting. Do you have a photo of your setup that you could share?

See attached pics. Let me know if need more info.

Sorry, forgot the other photo.

That’s basically how I did my rudder. I drilled a hole in the trailing edge like you did and I drilled and filled it with epoxy so I could pull it up when I want to beach it. It helped. The rudder for me has been the hardest thing to operate on this boat while you are either under sail or motoring it. A couple of years ago in the introduce me and my boat forum there was a guy named Travis Deeth and he had pictures posted of a really cool rudder that had some kind of helping hydraulic shock lifting system. I looked this up and it was pretty doggone expensive. $689 from Ruddercraft. I would love to have one though.
If I could only figure out how to make a cool hydraulic or electric rudder for these it would be awesome!