I was on mile 10 of a 13 nautical mile paddle from Mission Bay to San Diego Bay. We were at a fast (for me) pace, measured afterward at 4.5 to 4.8 knots. I was in my Solstice GTS with the rudder up trying my best to keep up to with Kris in her Arluk IV (she is very strong). When we rounded Pt Loma and came in to the bay from the ocean the wind suddenly rose to about 15 knots directly abeam. Now the GTS tracks extremely well so I left the rudder up and was able to hold direction with no problem, except that the occasional sweep was causing a slight strain on a not perfect rotator cuff. I then decided to lower the rudder to ease any possible strain on my shoulder. As soon as the rudder was down, the stern anchored slightly and the bow blew off. This was easily corrected by a bit of rudder. However I immediately began falling behind Kris. Added drag, I guess. I re-raised the rudder and caught up to her again. I repeated the experiment with the same results. A bit later the wind died. I lowered the rudder again and was able to keep up again. Conclusion: The rudder adds drag only if deflected. Obvious, I guess, if you think about it. Jerry *************************************************************************** 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 Nov 14 1998 - 21:42:49 PST
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