I bought a used 145 Tsunami with Rudder. Unfortunately, the foot pegs wouldn’t go forwarded enough to allow my legs to fit under the thigh pads.
Another thread related to moving the seat prompted me to give that a try. It solved the legroom issue. However, it created serious control issues with this boat. A paddling companion told me the bow was riding higher, and I noticed the boat yawed a few degrees more with each paddle stroke compared to my standard blue 145 Tsunami (without rudder). It also didn’t seem to respond as well with edging, or at least didn’t respond as I expected. Most noticable was the tendency to swing right when heavier following-waves pushed speeds up, starting around 6.4 mph through 7.0 mph. My standard blue 145 Tsunsmi has no problem staying on track when following-waves push the boat to 7.0 and 8.0 mph; I don’t know how it controls beyond that.
I initially attributed the trim issue to weather cocking, but realized the problem only became worse as the speed of the waves increased. After the boat departed the straight track, the waves pivoted the boat to the point it wanted to turn up into the waves (similar to oversteer on a car, where the back end swings out). The more powerful waves overpowered “my” ability to recover and keep the boat from turning broadside to the waves. I’m currently 6 ft tall and 230 lbs. Moving the seat 42 mm (about 1 5/8") to the rear changed the boats’s balance point to such an extent, that it needs a rudder for “me” to control the boat under some conditions. Yawing was not objectionable, but the baby ducks were looking.
Tracking in the my standard 145 Tsunami is nearly automatic, but required consentration in the orange Tsunami with the seat moved. Based on my abilities, I feel that contolling that boat in higher following wave without the rudder would be dangerous for me. I didn’t deploy the rudder on the orange Tsunami, because I neither want nor need a rudder on a 145. The 175 becomes another matter.
Track in blue shows the orange 145 with seat move to rear in SE10 mph wind. The red track shows my standard 145 Tsunami with SE 10-15 mph wind
