SC17 ruddercasting problems.

[dichtbijzee]

I have a SC17 witch is a delight to sail. the only problem is the enormous amounts of weatherhelm. so I tried the usual tricks, raking the mast more forward. so now when I'm sailing the boat like you should there is no rake what so ever. faired the rudders. I even tried a bigger (Prindle 18) jib.
Now I noticed some slop in the rudderpins and I found out that the tubular pins i have now are 8mm and the holes are worn so much that these are 9.4 mm. so when we are sailing and some pressure will come on the rudders. there is 3.2 mm movement. The rudders are toed in normally. but I think that with the added pressure they are actually toed out! when sailing.
What is a good solution to that? I thought about machining some new pins. or buying 10 mm and drill the hole bigger.

TIA
Stefan
SC17,P16,P18,H16,H14,N5.8
http://www.staysail.eu

[whalerman]

The new rudder pins that are available from Aquarius are made of a hard plastic so they will not damage the castings. I would take the castings to a machine shop to have a an aluminum plug installed in the pintle pin holes. then have them redrilled to the correct size.

Then set the mast rake at the proper 5 degrees. At that point close to neutral steering can be achieved by moving the block attachment point forward or backward on the mainsail.

[Kevin Keller]

You can buy plastic rod in different sizes so you can have them bored to a larger size if needed, instead of plugging the hole first. If I remember correctly both holes on mine had enlarged, boat side and the rudder side. The problem is getting the new holes centered correctly. Not sure how much a misalignment would affect the helm.

Whalerman I am wondering how moving the mainsheet blocks back and forth would affect the helm?

[whalerman]

There are 5 holes in the clew of my sail where I can attach the top block of the mainsheet. This seems to have a profound effect on the amount of weatherhelm as well as the performance of the boat.