Jerry wrote; >The primary purpose of a rudder is as an ENERGY SAVING DEVICE. It is not to >help handling or turning, etc. I have had both ruddered and unruddered >boats. If you are traveling long distance in windy, choppy conditions a >rudder saves energy. No matter how skilled you are. This may be the case in boats that are difficult to control and have strong weathercocking tendencies. It is not the case in those boats that track well without need for a rudder. In fact, tank testing has shown that rudders add a much a ten percent to overall drag. While this high figure maybe due to the rather poor design of most rudders it still is an indication of the cons of a rudder. I think it is important to understand that not all boats weathercock badly or lack controllability and that not all boats require special skills to keep them on course. One must not assume that, because most of the boats one has paddled lack controllability that all boats lack controllability. Cheers, John Winters Redwing Designs Specialists in Human Powered Watercraft http://home.ican.net/~735769/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Mar 28 1998 - 16:03:26 PST
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