ISLAND RUDDER REPLACEMENT PROGRAMAs announced last September by Hobie Cat President Doug Skidmore
( Original Announcement ), we made the decision to replace all Tandem Island and 2011 Adventure Island rudder systems. Last fall, all boats had been provided a temporary retrofit kit to hold the rudder down. Where we had contact information for retail owners, kits were sent directly to those customers.
We are now ready to begin the replacement phase of the project and will start shipping kits this week. The process will take several months to complete. These kits are provided at no charge to dealers and consumers. We will reimburse our dealers for installation labor in situations where the consumer requests installation by the dealer.
Here is a look at the new system:
The new rudder no longer employs the "Twist and Stow" system. The rudder blade simply rotates straight down for sailing and straight up for storage. This straight (versus a twist) rotation allows the rudder to more easily be held in the down position by the rope controls for sailing. The rudder can be used partially deployed, which allows for shallow water steering during launches and landings, thereby giving more positive control of the boat. The rudder foil shape is thicker, which provides better rudder response as well as increased strength. The new system has been well tested and feedback from users has been tremendous—a vast improvement for our Island products!
Boats built or in inventory at Hobie Cat Company as of April 11, 2011 have had the new rudder system installed.
Kit Distribution The following information pertains to the North American Region only. For other regions, contact your dealer or regional distributor for information.
Hobie Cat Australasia:
http://hobiecat.com.au/dealers/indexhtml.php[email protected]Hobie Kayak Europe:
http://www.hobie-kayak.com/cms/index.php?page=dealers[email protected]Hobie Cat Europe:
http://hobie-cat.net/site_gb/?corporate,revendeurs[email protected] We have serial numbers of all boats shipped to dealers that require the rudder replacement, and we have cross-referenced data from our warranty registration system of consumers who purchased those boats from the dealer. We will ship direct to consumers when we have their information. The balance of kits will be shipped to dealers.
If you have not already registered your boat in our warranty system, contact your dealer to confirm your desire for shipping a kit direct to you or to the dealer. We will make every effort to ship a kit direct to you (when informed by the dealer) if not already shipped to the dealer.
Installation You can review installation instructions here:
Printed Rudder Replacement InstructionsVideo Rudder Replacement Instructions