Folding Kayaks Forum

The hidden half of my Kayaksailor rig.

I felt that I needed a rudder if I was going to mount a sail on my Aleut, and I was pretty hot on the Kayaksailor rig. I wanted the rudder to help maintain my course, and for the resistance to lateral drifting that it offered. Luckily, I think, the rudder that came with my kayak was the “older” style, with quite a bit of area.

When I first installed the rudder, I was a bit disappointed. I couldn’t imagine spending much time in the cockpit with rudder control lines running down both of my legs. I really wanted a clear cockpit floor.

I took a few lessons from molded kayak rudder systems and led control lines through ¼” nylon tubing towards the bow. I fastened some ½” tubing to the frames to help me feed the ¼” tubing as the kayak was assembled. Then, I needed to be able to clamp the ¼” tubing in place at both ends. I added clamps at the stern washboard and 8” aft of the forward crossmember A.

Once the control lines reached the A (forward) crossframe, they needed to make a 90 degree turn. I made a block that held a small sheave and led the control lines to a lever arm on my foot control arms pivoting on my rudder post. The foot control arms retained their original positions. Or pretty close.

I used New England Ropes Spyderline 1.8 mm for control lines.

More pics of tubing guides and clamps.