Wouter:

Could you please tell who made a test on G-cat F16? Where is it possible to get more information about it?
Maybe you can recall 18HT sailors as well, it would be very interesting to get feedback directly from them.
Thank you!




catman:

Thank you for sharing the experience.
We assume that when person launches a cat, he mainly controls a boat with the sails(mainsail & jib). Rudders are used as a "steering helper" for sails. Finally, when the water is deep enough - sailor lowers the blades.

Rudder blade floats because it is very light. We consider the low weight as an advantage however, as many sailors are very much concerned about the weight of every boat part. Generally, we can put the lead inside in the bottom blade area. So rudders will be more suitable for leasure sailing.

Probably screws bent sometime after you tried to make some alterations in the setup(snug up the pivot point etc..) So after these alterations there were some freedom introduced between the rudder box and the blade. In this case, there is a very big chance that the screws will bend... Thus, it is strongly recommended not to make changes in the factory setup without asking for advise from the Dotan.
What rudders do you use now?
What will happen to them if you hit the bottom(like it was with Dotan rudder)?