Yellowfin 130T Rudder Kit

So far its been fun to have the rudder when I'm on the water.

The installation wasn't easy. First they don't send any instructions. The video available on youtube was OK, but not the easiest thing to frequently consult while installing it. I also didn't notice that my pedals didn't need to be flipped like in the video until I had flipped them all. It wouldn't be that hard for them to print out some instructions.

The rudder cord did not push through the holes very easily. One of them in particular started bird caging towards the end and refused to go through all the way. I ended up taking it out, stretching it by tying it in-between two posts and used a hair dryer to get the wax to reform and stiffen it up. That worked, but then I found that they didn't give me any extra 1/4" of cord on the two shorter cords. I was able to get it to work with some modified knots that I hope will hold.

Once I got the line through, it was time to begin the typing process. For the real lines (the short ones), I had no problem. Unfortunately, the long lines that went from front to back were too short and only left about 3 inches to tie off at the rudder. Instead of dealing with Vibe customer support and deal with waiting another week or so for a replacement part, I went down to my local marine/boat supply store and purchased 40 feet (20 feet per side) of their equivalent line. Nice thing about this, it's silver/gray and easy to differentiate between the black lines associated with the rear pedals.

The only other downside is the fact that the rudder is fairly long - when in the retracted (out of water) position, it extends into the rear storage area. If you carry a crate for fishing, the rudder will be pinched by the crate and you will find it difficult to deploy/retract and set the bungie strap. You might need to modify your crate. I'm still looking at options...

I have yet to take this setup into the water as I'm fishing in a couple of weeks and the boat needs to be 100% dry to pass inspection before I can go on the lake. I'll have a better idea of how tracking handles once I'm in the water.

I just installed the rudder kit onto my Vibe Yellowfin 13T (2018 model).

The kit came with (almost) everything I needed. The kit doesn't come with instructions. You would think that a basic set of instructions would have been included. Not even a parts list. Thank goodness for YouTube!

That being said, after watching the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7Gp8hTorQs I felt confident enough to proceed.

I also followed the advice of another YouTube video and installed a Zig-Zag Cleat for the paracord used to deploy the rudder. This keeps the rudder fully deployed and more resilient to drag resistance when in the water.

As for the installation, things went really well up until it was time to thread the lines from the pedals to the rudder.

I found that the lines wouldn't go all the way through the "smurf tubes" between the pedals and the rudder. Luckily, I had a spool of 12 gauge steel wire. I was able to push the wire from one end to the other. I then wrapped the wire around the cord and was able to pull it back through to the other side. Just like running CAT5/6 plenum through drywall!