Wanderer rudder and tiller rigging

[WandererNewbie]

Hi
I've recently bought a 30 year old Wanderer and have very limited sailing experience.

The rudder and tiller has a downhaul (the black and green line in the photo) attached to a pulley.

I've added an up haul (the blue line) but its practically impossible to pull up the rudder. It's just too heavy. There's also doesn't appear to be a cleat to attach it to. The cleat that is there is a quick release type - presumably to release the down haul in the event of running aground.

Have I set it up correctly? Hoping someone more experienced can help me.

Kind regards

Rich

 

[TernVI]

The downhaul looks right. 2:1 downhaul is good.
The uphaul is not that common with modern dinghies, and look like it won't work well, and stop working when the rudder is part way up.
Personally I just make sure the rudder blade has smooth parallel sides at the head so it moves OK with the pivot bolt done up enough that the blade stays up against gravity, then you shouldn't get excess slack in the steering.
You don't want the blade to float up totally if you touch the bottom!
Those auto release cleats are good, but I find mine took quite a bang to release it, so I adjusted the catch with a file.

 

[DaveRo]

We bought a new Wanderer in '94. It had a fancier tiller than that - not just a pole.
My recollection is that it had no blocks, just a couple of jam-cleats. And the uphaul didn't pull it right up.
You might find some pix on wanderer.org.uk

 

[Tam Lin]

I agree, my Wanderer tiller and rudder stock didn’t look like that.

 

[DaveRo]

And I'm not sure - we sold it more than 20 years ago - but I think that one of the lines - the one that stopped the rudder from floating up - was actually shockcord. That would make sense: it would allow the rudder to rise when it hits the bottom.

I do remember that these two lines oftem jammed between the rudder and the stock, and that the whole contraption had sharp edges!

 

[oldbloke]

Why do you want an uphaul?
If you want the blade up out of the way when launching etc then tighten the bolt till it stays up (but not so tight you can't get it down)
If you want to be able to clear weed etc then putting a 2:1 purchase on the uphaul will get the blade up enough to shed weed.
In most cases an uphaul is not really useful, which is why your boat didn't come with one.
The problem with elastic downhauls is that unless the elastic is very strong and tensioned the blade tends to lift a bit at speed( just when you don't want it to). So use really thick elastic and tension it with your rope/clear system