Yup, I use a rudder on all my boats so equipped. Seems like the right thing to have, too. Those boats are big, and have hull forms which do not lend themselves readily to leaned or swept turns. Sometimes they weathercock, depending on how they are loaded. And loaded is how I use them, because they are designed for extended trips. Yeah, I CAN paddle them without a rudder, but it seems silly to cast aspersions on the use of a rudder for these boats. I'm fairly meaty and pretty strong. If someone smaller were paddling one of these boats, the rudder would be even more critical to bring the boat around in difficult conditions, making the rudder a safety issue. Got a smaller boat, a plywood stitch and glue I built, which does not have a rudder. Does not need it -- for my use, anyway. However, my SO thinks she would feel more comfortable if it had one, because she is not adept at leaned/swept turns, and she is uneasy in a following sea when the stern wiggles (pre-broaching behavior). She loves to paddle the boat because it is light and responsive. If she were stuck in gnarly conditions with it, sans rudder, and got into trouble, I'd feel bad if I'd taken a hard-ass attitude about the rudder issue. Turns out she only paddles it on easy trips, so I'm not going to put a rudder on it, for my own aesthetic, selfish reasons. Seems like it's kind of arch to take a dogmatic approach to the rudder/nonrudder issue. Almost poe-tay-toe versus poe-tah-toe, except for the "what would you do if the rudder failed" argument. Don't have a good rejoinder for that one. I think if my SO could not get her boat headed where she wanted it because the rudder was disabled, I'd HELP her get pointed in the correct direction. And so it goes ... -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR A big guy in the rudder department *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
Dave Kruger wrote: > ...SNIP... > Got a smaller boat, a plywood stitch and glue I built, which does not > have a rudder. Does not need it -- for my use, anyway. However, my SO > thinks she would feel more comfortable if it had one, because she is not > adept at leaned/swept turns, and she is uneasy in a following sea when > the stern wiggles (pre-broaching behavior). She loves to paddle the > boat because it is light and responsive. If she were stuck in gnarly > conditions with it, sans rudder, and got into trouble, I'd feel bad if > I'd taken a hard-ass attitude about the rudder issue. ...SNIP... I think that this is an excellent example of what lies at the core of the issue. Here we have a boat that does not need a rudder, but a paddler who does. Not being prone to dogmatic thinking, I believe that there are two reasonable alternatives in such cases: (1) add a rudder, or (2) learn to control the boat without one. This, by the way, involves more than "leaned/swept turns". Dan Hagen Bellingham, Washington *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:32:48 PDT