I agree with everything Wouter has said above, so I won't go into great detail, he covered it very well. He did indeed demo his rudders for me on his boat, on the beach, we locked them down and then I smacked the rudder tips with my hand and they did pop up, as advertised. APHC did a very nice job on the rods, which is the single most critical peice of the system.

Two things are critical, 1. they have to pop up when you hit something hard (beach, sandbar) and 2. they have to stay down when you are racing and not hitting the beach! My Jav 2 (2002) eddition rudders were always popping up when I got the thing going fast, not good during a race, then they wouldn't come up if you beached it!

I saw the original Blade rods that Matt had on his boat back last spring, they had a very small diameter stainless adjuster screw at the end wich was prone to bending/breaking. I have not seen what he is using now but I know he was equally dissapointed with those early models and looking for something better.

The problem of having to go to the low side to unlock that rudder remains under either system. Simply driving it onto the beach and hoping it comes up is not an option, long term, it will damage the rudder and could rip it off the transom. At a minimum they require some advance planing. You must unlock one side, gybe, undo the other, or have the crew get over there and undo it, but when it's really blowing at the beach, and the surf is big, you had better get it done early on the way into shore.

On the way out, you can drive with one, tack, set the other one. Still, I love the Nacra system where you just lift the crossbar and both come up or down at the same time, or you can do one at a time. Is it so hard to do that in carbon? Maybe it's Pattent protected? What are they putting on their new A2?