polycarbonate (?) spring-holder for Ares rudder - question about your maintenance routines

Susan DeBari Jun 5 #31739

The plastic/polycarbonate spring holder on my Ares cracked today while I was out paddling in the waves. I was south of post point heading into the wind and waves and suddenly noticed that I had no left steering. I turned around by steering right and surfed back downwind using rudder to steer right and paddle to steer left. When I got to shore I confirmed I had no ability to push down on the left pedal and so screwed off the black rudder cap/puck to take a look. The attached picture shows what I found - a cracked spring plate.

My Ares is about 6 years old and I have never changed out the spring plate, nor had trouble with the rudder (but our Gemini is a whole other story….)

My question is this - do those of you who own an Ares change out your spring plate or spring as part of routine maintenance? Should I have done that say after year 3? Or was this just a freak accident?

The waves were so good I tried again with a (fat) surfski. Some solace was had.

Sue DeBari

allipp@… Jun 6 #31741

Edited Jun 6

It looks like the cracked plate somehow wedged the spring into a position that wouldn't allow you to steer left. For now, you can probably just remove the spring and put the round black top-plate/yoke back on and your steering should work, albeit without the ability to self center. Ozone should hopefully have a replacement spring plate you can order from their website.

I know this didn't answer your question about maintenance, but this is the first time I've heard of this issue happening.

bflannelly50 Jun 6 #31742

I have replaced cracked spring holders for two Ares. I’ve been lucky-neither was mine, although I’ve replaced my broken springs several times. There’s a bit of a trick to installing the spring holders: put the screws in part way, then twist the holders around until the rudder lines up straight. It might be smart to replace both parts as preventative maintenance, but I’m not that wise. I just bless the parts prior to use and employ inappropriate language when they fail. JD keeps a good stock of both springs and spring holders.

Father Flannelly

Reivers Dustin Jun 6 #31744

Looks very similar to Vega surfski system. I've noticed no problems, but this might be a heads up. I'm thinking that this may mean there was at some time a super hard push on the left rudder pedal - leading to overpressure on this polycarb rudder-stop (kinda winging it here). In times of great stress I've been known to push all the buttons as often and as hard as I can.

From looking at the Vega set up these parts look very stout. Note that there is a substantial penalty for taking crap apart and putting it back together badly. I broke a rudder cable when putting the little cap back on such that the cable was routed into a pinch point and eventually broke. Makes me nervous if there is a requirement to take it apart every so often.

rd

michaelwood Jun 6 #31747

In 7 yrs of paddling Ares and 2.5 of Flex year round multiple times a week I've only had 1 busted spring. So probably not much to worry over. But easily replaced . Never busted the screw plate.

A slightly backed out rudder screw will allow rudder to drop just enough to cause rudder to not fully work properly and get stuck on one side. So good practice to occasionally check for full seating with Phillips head regardless of how much 242 you put on threads.

Susan DeBari Jun 6 #31748

Thank you for the feedback. The good people at Ozone are sending me a complimentary replacement spring holder/screw plate.

Sue