In a message dated 2/2/01 11:18:49 AM Pacific Standard Time, whiterabbit_at_empowering.com writes: > Has anyone paddled the SmartTrack Rudders from SealLine (Cascade Designs). > They look interesting, how do they work? How hard are they to adjust? > Yes. This last Saturday, I paddled our fleet's fiberglass Eclipse for the first time since it was retrofitted with the SealLine system. I cruised around on flat water for about 20 minutes just to get an impression of the rudder system, and I am not a fan of rudders on kayaks, so my impressions should be taken with the appropriate skepticism. The rudder blade looks small, but it is very effective and quiet in operation. The shape seems to make it much more effective than any flat-plate or other shaped blade I have ever tried. It turned quickly and effortlessly, seemed to impart minimal drag, and resisted stalling. The uphaul/downhaul worked fine. A spring drops the blade when the uphaul line is released, and you need to pull against the spring tension when raising the rudder, but it was at least as easy as most any other rudder I've used. I am concerned about how dependable the mechanism will be in extended use in sand and salt conditions since it is a fairly complicated bit of engineering, but only time will tell. Construction and quality appear superb. My one big concern is the fact that the rudder blade points straight up into the air when in the raised position, making a pretty good sail and posing a real threat to life and limb of anyone tangling with the boat in a collision or surf-swim. I get the heebie-jeebies thinking about that blade hitting someone in the chest. The footbraces were also very nice. I have tried a couple other gas-feed type fixed-peg braces before, such as on the Prijon boats, and have found them uncomfortable and hard to use. I am short and have size 8 feet, so I found I needed to either bend my foot at the arch or raise my heel off the hull to steer the other brands, causing foot cramps and tiring. The SealLine pegs were very comfortable, and a fairly natural rocking of the foot over a short range gave me all the rudder control I needed. I loved the solid bracing and found them easy to use. Adjusting the food peg for leg-length is easily done while sitting in the boat by reaching into the boat as far forward as your knees, lifting upward on a plastic adjustment arm, sliding the peg to a new position and lowering the arm to lock the peg in place. It is not so easy to tell if you are adjusting the pegs to the same notch, however -- I needed to gauge that by feeling with my feet. The cable from the rudder to the gas-feed rudder peddles adjusts automatically when you adjust the foot pegs, so no need to make a separate adjustment as with the Prijon and some other systems AND there are no nylon straps or plastic buckles involved (Oh happy day!). Again, the quality appears top notch. And again, I wonder about the long-term durability of the peg system. They are cute and well done, but can they take the abuse and stress of long-term use? I think the system will prove very popular and (based on my limited experience) I approve of it with the skeptical desire to wait and see about the durability except for the (for me) fatal flaw of the vertically-parked rudder blade. Happy Paddling Harold (Did I mention I tried the boat on Saturday last in sunny 85-degree Southern California? We must be living right.) *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Feb 06 2001 - 23:17:27 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:37 PDT