DIY modifications and upgrades

Hi all,
This winter I purchased a new Stellar Falcon to complement my Nelo 550 (no need to comment on how necessary that was, my wife took care of that already )
While I like the speed/stability ratio of the Stellar, the stellar footplate and the comfortable cockpit, there were still some nitpicks:
1. The pedals are not pretensioned and will flop forward when remounting of even when actuating the bailer. So I installed a set of Nelo rudder line adjusters and used some bungees behind the pedals to pretension them (see pictures). The result is a more-or-less self-centering setup that can still go straight when actuating the bailer.
2. When exercising on flat water, the original Stellar rudder is too big, but OEM Stellar prts are not as easy to come by in Europe as they are in the States.
Since I had several rudders lying around for my Nelo 550, I wanted to use on of them on the Falcon too. Problem: the Nelo rudders have an indexed 6mm shaft instead of the 7.5mm Stellar shaft with thread on top.
So, I 3D printed a sleeve to increased the Nelo rudder shaft diameter to 7.5 mm and a new rudder tiller bar (see pictures below) . I can now use Nelo rudders or the easily available "Select" rudders with 6mm shaft.
3. I am not a fan of the webbing foot brace and much prefer a rigid pull-bar. Next project is to 3D print brackets to adapt a Nelo pull-bar to the Stellar footplate in a way that can be removed later if needed. I'll post the results in due time.
If you also made some modifications to the outfitting of your boat, perhaps others can draw inspiration. Post them here...

I am impressed with people like you that 3D print such perfect parts! Is it a fairly strong plastic that you have confidence in? Looks thick and robust at any rate.

Another way to get some elastic recoil and self centering in the foot pedals is to simply put bungee cord from the back of one pedal to the back of the other. It is a matter of personal preference which approach looks better. A possible advantage of the pedal to pedal bungee is that the tension is always equal on the two pedals and you don’t have to worry about getting the same tension in two different bungees.

Hi Zach,

The tiller bar is made from carbon-fiber reinforced nylon. The strongest plastic we found and could print. Pretty hard. Also, the design is 12mm thick. According to my back-of-a-napkin calculations, it should be as strong as the original stainless steel tiller bar.
Anyway, the only way to get a lot of bending moment on that would be pushing with both feet on the pedals but, no reason to do that... I don't believe the force of the water on the rudder blade could be high enough to damage it without some other part failing first, like the rudder lines. Hitting something hard with the rudder is a different matter, of course. But that is not part of my usual routine.

You are right about the different tension of the bungees, though. It took me a couple tries to get the same tension left and right...

I have broken 2 footpedals at the same time by going over a massive breaking wave at 29 kmh and landing vertically with all my weight on the foot pedals at once. That was on a boat with fiber reinforced plastic steering yoke. And the pedals broke not the yoke. So I think your yoke will outlast the rest of the ski.

I have broken 2 footpedals at the same time by going over a massive breaking wave at 29 kmh and landing vertically with all my weight on the foot pedals at once. That was on a boat with fiber reinforced plastic steering yoke. And the pedals broke not the yoke. So I think your yoke will outlast the rest of the ski.

new modification to the Stellar foot brace: as I am a big fan of the Nelo carbon pull bar over the foot straps mounted as default on Stellar skis, I printed some brackets to attach such a pull bar on a second set of Stellar quick-release cams.
3D printed bracket is made from carbon-fiber-reinforced PETG.

With this system, I can change the distance between the footplate and the pull bar as well as the angle of the pull bar.

Testing is still ongoing w.r.t. to optimal height of the pull bar and strength, but I am very happy with how streamlined it turned out.

Big thanks to Arjan Bloem, the Stellar dealer in the Netherlands for the extra set of quick-release cams.