I am thinking about putting the Dotan system on my prindle 18-2 . Has anyone used this system or know of anyone who has ?
Blade 25 # 2... The weight difference is huge. Also with Prindle no longer producing parts I cant find any 2nd generation blades.
Blade 2
Profile NACA
Weight 1.7 kg dotan.com
Buy them! I've committed to purchase 4 sets for my 4 Nacra's and have taken delivery of 2 sets so far. Installed on the the restored 5.2 (the mean green machine in the avatar) and love them. They are not a drop in replacement however. You will need to do some bending and cutting of the tiller arms. You also can't use the channel type gudgeon brackets, at least the old Nacra ones. You must switch to the 'L' bracket type. You also need to make sure that you put a large enough bend in the tiller tubes to get them a good distance from your hulls so that when you are making the fast up/down motion to set the rudders the joint for the tiller cross bar doesn't smack the top of the hulls. I've got a few scratches from being just a tad too low.
Thanks for your advice on the installation ... I didn't think it would be a direct bolt on and sail deal. The 18-2 gudgeons are the "L" type so they should work. What about the distance between top and bottom holes for the pin ? How long does it take to get them and what is the process ? Thanks , Doug
Doug,
The top hinge point on the assembly is adjustable. The piece slides up and down in a groove and there are small holes in the main frame. You simply put the supplied self tapping screws through the slider and screw into the main frame. Note that I also had to drill out the rudder hinges to accept the larger rod that the Nacra had. If you have to do this make sure you just step up in small drill size increments. Since the frames are glass filled plastic it is very easy for the larger drill bits to take their own track through the plastic and you will have holes that don't line up.
If you need some pic's let me know.
Craig , I don't know how hard you sail your boat but have you had any trouble with the system breaking any parts ? Yes I would like some pics. Thanks , Doug Send to email nacra202@yahoo.com
Doug,
I haven't had them too long, just got them toward the end of July. Although the frame is plastic, it is glass filled and seems pretty rugged. I found a video before my purchase at
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/716158/dotan_kick_up_rudder_crash_test/
where someone was standing on the rudder bouncing up and down. It took any concern about the plastic away.
I'm pretty swamped right now with the business so it might take a couple weeks before I can pull the CAT and take some pics.