How good are Stellar skis

What I did in all my Stellars is I made a plastic line stopper that I threaded behind the foot pedals, then I continued the line through and attached back like they are originally. By doing this it it takes the play out of the line from the pedals to where they were originally tied off. So essentially I tied of the line directly behind the pedals. this helps dramtically with the responsiveness. Others have tried the bungie system that has worked also but is more involved keeping tension on the pedals at all times.

It too was not satisfied with responsiveness and had tried some other ideas but Chris's Chappell idea was the most effective and the simplest. It take 10 minutes to cut a piece of plastic and drill 4 holes to thread the line through. Chris(his idea 12 months ago) and I have done this to all our boats.

The other thing is that the 2011 models of Stellars are much more responsive than the older models. The older models had to much play in the line inside the ski. this was causing alot of the unresponsiveness. So between taking the internal slack out of the line, stoppers, and the "balanced rudders either the 8in or 9inch,I find the steering about 50% better. That 4in rudder does not have much bite in true ocean conditions. I have pushed from the start that Stellar needs a different system particular because I don't like messing with knots like on the Stellars and Epics. I personally like the Think system. I do agree with you, the Mako's, Hukis, and the Think skis are incredibly responsive, two of which have cable vice line. Your point is well taken. I hope this helps. Try to Stoppers. I will keep pushing for change! WESLEY(Portsmouth,RI, USA)

The new rudder does make a difference but as above the routing of the lines through the pedals is an issue. The lowest of the holes in the pedals is too high, which creates to much opposing force from the opposite pedal when pressing down to turn, this creates friction where the lines run into the hull. To over come this I run light elastic lines to the top of the pedal and do not use the bottom hole which holds the pedals upright, you don't need a lot of tension to keep the pedals upright, just to stop them flopping backwards. Either do what Wesley did or tie of the lines to the pedal, this improves rudder response a lot. If you continue with the lines through the bottom hole to keep the pedal forward, the responsiveness is not as good as it can be. We have several SES in our club and we have all done this.

Outriggerbev, the V10L does turn quicker, this is related to rocker, but once your rudder and lines are sorted your SES will turn much better, not quite on par with the V10 but close.

I replaced my Stellar rudder with an Epic 9" surf rudder. Huge difference. A bit of mucking around as the shaft sizes differ. Not long after, the Stellar surf rudder came out. Don't know if the Oz dealers have them though.
Wes, is there an image floatingbaround of thepedal mod?

How did you mill the rudder down to size boof head-I have a 9 inch epic rudder also from the boat that I smashed into ten pieces.

My V10 had a rudder with a carbon post. It broke whilst surfing but I managed to find the foil. I sourced some stainless steel rod. the foil had an aluminium plate in it so I redrilled with an end mill rather than a drill. I machined a plastic bush so hat I could use the Epic yoke/clamp as I don't have the resources to machine a square drive on a shaft.
Obviously a bit of stuffing around but Stellar didn't have a balanced surf rudder at the time.

I took my wife's SR Excel out today for 2 hr paddle on our local river. The stability is excellent - more stable than a V10 Sport or Evo, although the SR probably isn't quite as fast as either one. The foot plate is excellent - very solid, properly angled, and it fit my feet well. I found the large cockpit worked well with the dry pants and paddling shorts I was wearing (accommodated the extra bulk). It's still not as comfortable as an Epic cockpit for me, but I had no problem paddling for 2 hrs in reasonable comfort. With my winter paddling boots on, I couldn't use the straps as designed, but I found that if you pull the straps out of the inside slots, you can overlap them and keep them in place with the strap covers that come with the boat. This effectively and easily created a single footstrap that seemed to work well.

At one point a boat come by throwing up some good waves, which allowed a bit of surfing. After passing me, the boat stayed ahead a short distance, running about the same speed, and created small rollers for quite a ways back. It seemed like the SR picked up these small waves fairly easily. I could tell that a larger rudder would be very desireable for rougher water, but the small rudder worked well enough for flat water paddling.

Can anyone comment on the new stellar SEL... especially downwind! How good are they?

If you have not read my review on SurfskiRacing.com, it may be helpful to you. Downwind the SEL is excellent. At the peak of the wave, just before catching the run, the SEL is planted, no wobble, no nervousness like most other High Performance skis. This is a common theme in all the Stellars including the SE2. It is extremely predictable. It is so stable I have only used the 4inch rudder in all but the biggest conditions we get here in New England. It has excellent primary and secondary stability, the best of all the High Performance skis. There are other paddlers in Australia and New Zealand that are racing and paddling the SEL in downwind conditions as well. Their comments to me echo what my experience. Speed: I will be racing my Ultra SEL in most of the 12 races this year vice my SES's except on the flatter races. I can get maximum power on every stroke, in any conditions in the SEL. While I very comfortable in my SES's in all conditions, I can maximize my power and efficiency in the SEL. Word of caution though. You need to use a GPS when you time trial it or compare it with one of your buddies and use them as the baseline. It is so stable, you think you are going slower than you are.

The ultra construction at 22lbs is one of the best in the industry: prepreg,unidirectional high modulus carbon, and the nomex is a higher grade as well, Super light, stiff, durable. Wesley, SurfskiRacing.com and Stellar agent.