I find that with a ruddered boat, when traveling on a straight course, you just set the rudder angle and forget about it, just like a skeg. A rudder can turn a boat, but that is not its primary purpose.
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You need to introduce more slop in the rails. When I had min out to replace the broken spectrix line with stainless steel line. I took dome sandpaper and roughed up and slightly widened the gap that the rails slide on. this made them move much much more easily.
then when feeding the cable through the cable guides, I waxed the cable (just grabbed an old emergency candle and ribbed the cable across the candle to reduce friction through the cable guides. ) before I fed it through.
finally I put a thin very thin nylon washer (maybe 1-1.5mm thick.) between the cable guide clamps so it didn’t put any force compressing the cable guide i did this as a precaution since the stainless line is a bit thicker than the spectrix line. so there’s less room in the cable guide for freeplay.
after this my rudder controls were much smoother. to use and did not require as much force. Though it’s still a tad more than the Jackson Journey needs. But it’s still good enough.
You have to be careful lubricating cable guides. Some manufacturers do not recommend it. Sand and grit can stick to the lubricant causing excessive wear. Many recommend just periodically flushing the guides with clean water.
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Graphite.
Tends to be a bit messy.
Tends to be?
Me too. I still haven’t figured out optimal blade area but I know what length I need. So 230 Whiskey then I’ll muck about dialing in blade area.
I think I’m probably a 630 to 640 sqcm but nobody makes a high angle in those parameters.
I’ve asked about and Aqua, and Werner won’t do a custom blade.
Use Boeshield T-9 lubricant. It doesn’t get sticky and isn’t damaging to plastics. Bicycle shops often have it in spray and dropper bottles. I’ve used it for years on folding kayak frames and on rudder and skeg components, as well as bike chain lube.
My kayaking has been in the open ocean and without a rudder a great deal of my energy is needed to overcome the wind moving the bow and taking me off course. 'With rudderless kayaks I needed to tack like a sailboat to reach my destination. The rudder fixes this problem completely.
The only real alternative is to have a Bixby or similar electric drive motor and then one can afford to drag the paddle to stay on course.
That is true, but it also essentislly depends on the boat design. I own five different Tsunami models, ranging in size and different lengths:
• 12’ x 21" w/ rudder
• 12’ 6" x 26" w/o rudder
• two 14’ x 24" w/ rudder
• two 14’ 6" x 24.5", one w/ & one w/o rudder
• 17’ 6" x 24" w/ rudder
All are used in similar conditions by paddlers ranging from teens through seniors. The only rudder that has every, EVER, been deployed is the one on the 17’ 6".
Rudders are great, rudders are fine. However, it depends largely on the boat design, personal skills, conditions, then finally and “definitively” by “personal choice.” I won’t use the rudder on the 14’ 6" model, but I also wouldn’t take the 17’ 6" boat out when the rudder was broken. That’s my choice.
The problem with this topic on open forum is that novice kayakers can get the impression that a rudder is a critical and universally desired object of affection. The discussion devolves from the purpose and function of a rudder (or skeg) to personal preference.
With the exception of the rudder on one kayak, I consider the others a $300 waste of money, unnecessary added weight, limiting regarding transportation and storage, susceptible to damage and a real pain when you have a boat that specifically depends on a rudder or skeg for steerage, and the screws fall out of the mount to render it a worthless appendage that’s dragging in the water.
It’s good to hear you appreciate and benefit from the rudder. What model and size boat do you have? That info could be helpful to others on the marker for a kayak.