Joe posted several messages and pictures of his boat in 2005.  I reproduce them here because he seems to have a novel and elegant (and working!) solution to the rudder problem.

 

Starting with message #11570:

 

Joe Creecy:

Have any of you seen Joe Creecy's rudders on the first proa file?

 

 

 

Michael Schach:

Thanks for the reminder, Joe. This is a very neat way of using Hobie

rudders to steer a proa. They kick up, too. Find diagrams and lots of

pics in the Photos (not files) section.

 

http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/proa_file/lst

 

MIchael

 

 

 

Dean Dibling:

Joe,

What are the last two pics in your file? Looks like a tensioning line

acting on some kind of lever with a pulley in the middle.

 

Thx

 

Dean Dibling

 

 

 

Joe:

 

Dean,

This is a little more than you ask for but your answer is in it. Look at

the first of my pictures. The first picture is a diagram depicting the

rudders using control lines between not one but two steering wheels. The

top steering wheel in the diagram steers the boat. The bottom wheel in the

diagram controls the shunt. When the boat is sailing along on one

tack/shunt the, shunt wheel is locked in position (locking system not

shown). You will notice by studying the diagram that if you turn the top

wheel with the bottom wheel locked that the rudders will turn in opposite

directions. (cw for one and ccw for the other or vice-versa). This action

steers the boat. Upon shunting you must turn the bottom wheel and that will

make both rudders turn in the same direction. That is to say cw or ccw. The

shunt wheel must be turned to its other stop (not shown) where the rudders

will have turned turned 180 degrees plus or minus a few degrees (I'll

explain later. I thought up this idea and built my proa to experiment with

it. But after I built my proa I realized I didn't have the resorces to set

it up so I decided to figure out how to get the same results with levers and

rods etc. instead. That is what the second picture depicts. Also if you

study the photos you can see how it works. But I will explain it again

here. There is a rocker arm that pivots in its center mounted to the end of

another arm. The rocker arm has, pivoted to each end, tiller extensions

which extend to the tillers ends. When the rocker arm rocks the rudders are

made to move in opposite directionsl. This action steers the boat. Upon

shunting. the other arm on which the rocker arm is mounted must be released

from its lock and swung 180 degrees (plus or minus a few degrees) to its new

locking position. Notice the locks in the photos are spring loaded using a

bungy cord.

In explaination of the plus or minus a few degrees I will say that you might

find that while sailing along that you want to be able to have your foils

aimed upwind a few degrees of the centerline of the boat in order to allow

the hulls to travel straight through the water while the foils take a little

bight. Some boats are set up to have their boards 'jibe' when they tack for

the same purpose. On the other hand you might want to aim them off to

leeward a degree or two. Don't laugh. The surface water that the hull is

going through is traveling down wind and the water lower down that the

rudder or board is going through is stiller. Anyway, my rudders on my proa

are adjustable by simply loosening two wing nuts for each direction. I

haven't determined how to adjust them for optimum performance yet but I

think that it will not be just one position.

Regards,

Joe

 

Dean,

Sorry for the long explanation. I thought you were talking about the first

two pics or diagrams.

The levers of which you write are the locks for the arm to lock in. They are

spring loaded together using a bungy cord. Please notice the square end of

the arm protruding out from under the rocker arm. That end snaps into place

at the ends of its travels in the square notches on the sides of the levers,

one at a time of course. The thing in the middle is the pivoting end of the

arm. Under the swing end of the arm is a caster that supports the weight of

the arm. I hope this clears it up for you. If not please tell me. If you

are thinking of using it I might be able to help.

Regards,

Joe

 

Kevin O'Neill:

Joe

 

That's just beautiful. Very very clever, thanks for

showing it to us. Your solution is quite a bit more

elegant than mine is.

 

Are those Hobie 16 rudders and cases?

 

Kevin

 

 

 

Joe:

Thanks guys for the kind words. Those are indeed Hoby16 rudders that I

bought from a used sailboat hardware shop. The tiller version is not quite

fool proof yet but it works well if when you shunt, you bring the 'arm on

which the rocker is mounted' half way through its travel, then get the sail

around, then get the boat moving on the new shunt, then move the 'arm on

which the rocker is mounted' the rest of the way to its new lock-in

position, there is no problem. I only sailed it three times and I haven't

debugged it completely yet. I do believe that the original version (first

picture) should prove to be fool proof but I can't say for sure as I've

never tried it. Maybe some of you might.

I am in Portsmouth, Virginia USA which is on the Elizabeth river which flows

into the Chesapeake Bay which is ten miles away. I hope some of you are

near here but I don't know as I have never seen another proa in this area.

Where are y'all from?

Best regards,

Joe

 

Pictures follow, originally posted in Yahoo group proa_file Photos section.  All pictures belong to Joe Creecy.