PA rudder upgrade

[Jenko]

As anyone who owns a PA knows, the steering sucks and in lumpy water is useless, as the PA rides over swell the rudder comes nearly right out of the water and the PA wants to go sideways. Starting from a standing start you cannot turn until you get some momentum happening then turn. I thought about making a bigger rudder and then come across a guy on Hobie forums that had done it....if he could do it, so could I...............welll..I did it. Piece of P133.
Sheet of 10mm plastic $20 and 2 hours work.

[Babylon]

How does it fold up .Cheers Babylon

[shane]

Looks great Gary. I've been planning to do the same thing since seeing the other post. A couple of questions if I may:

1. Have you tried it out yet and any significant improvement?
2. Where did you purchase the plastic sheet from?
3. Anything else others should be wary of doing this mod?

Thanks. Shane.

[Jenko]

Jim it folds up exactly the same.

Shane; I haven't tried it yet but plan on fishing Friday to try it out.
I bought the 10mm black plastic from Resiplex in Duro Street Geelong for $20, but any plastic suppy joint should have it.
The only tools I used were;
1. Bandsaw.... but could have used a jigsaw.
2. Sanding disc on a small angle grinder.......go slow as you can't put back what you grind off. I tappered the rudder like the original, depends how fussy you want to get.
3. Files... 1/2 round and flat.
4. Drill
And that's it..
I will take some photo's of a couple of little things you need to do, but mate..anyone can do it, it's really very basic.

[shane]

Thanks Gary. Looks easy as. I'll give it a try this weekend and see how long I can get it.

[Jenko]

Shane, if you want I can pull it back out and take more photos, just let me know.

[shane]

Thanks Gary but I reckon I'll be able to work it out once I get the old one out.

[Dibbles]

Gary that looks cool, will be interesting to see how it goes compared to the "hobie" one. Looks like trip to resiplex could be happeneing

[Ghurkin]

How big was the sheet of 10mm for that price Gary? looks great by the way top job

[Jenko]

How big was the sheet of 10mm for that price Gary? looks great by the way top job

From memory it was 500mm x 200mm x 12mm, they keep all sorts of plastic in solid rod, tube, sheet etc.
http://resiplex.com.au/