Rudder for Venture 21

[punker23]

Can anyone tell me how the rudder on a venture 21 is rigged up for raising or lowering?

Thanks
Harold

[johnnyonspot]

If it is anything like the rudder on my Mac 25 it has a line with one end that goes through a hole in the trailing edge of the rudder about 1/3 of the way down from the pivot point. This is knotted on the other side so it cannot pull through. The line then runs through a block mounted just forward of the rudder bracket at the bottom of the bracket, and then through another hole in the rudder, at its leading edge, a few inches down from the pivot point, and again knotted on other side to avoid it pulling throgh. There is a cleat mounted on the rudder bracket near the top. For raising the rudder the line running through the trailing edge is pulled and cleated off. To lower it the other end of the line is pulled and cleated off. One good mod for this is to use either a strong bungee in place of the line so it gives when the rudder is grounded or hits another obstacle, or a special jam cleat that is set to let go and give way at a certain load; both of these help preserve your rudder. Idasailor probably makes an after market rudder for this boat. They are spendy, but the word is they are head and shoulders above the stock rudder when it comes to performance. You can also get just the rudder blade rather then the entire assembly IIRC. Hope this helps.