Bandit 17 Rudder Question

Hello Friends,

I bought an old Bandit 17 back in January, have fixed it up and took it out for its first spin this past weekend. Had trouble keeping the rudder in the down position. The rudder has an eye hook on the front which I imagine is part of a system to keep it down, but I can't seem to figure how it should work. Any suggestions??? Thanks.

Steve in Savannah, GA

Sounds like a rudder on a Mac 26 I had. A "sheet" (rope) attached to front of rudder (or side) feed up to Tiller handle area (for the Mac, it was a rope attached to steel cable attached to rope where it fed to rudder).
From there, I tied it off on a small T cleat attached to tiller handle. Some folks used a Clam Cleat so they could release quicker when getting in too shallow of water.

I have to make a make a tiller/rudder for a small Bandit I just got. Plan to semi copy same system. Handy for beaching boat and not breaking rudder.
-Bookmon