Re: [Paddlewise] Weatherhelm

John Winters wrote:
> 
> ...<snip>... Having heard so many paddlers tell me how much they like their
> rudders I  suspect that rudders are not the great evil that I once thought.
> Of course, I  will get drummed out of the Evangelical Church of Rudderless
> Paddlers for saying that but what the hell. I still feel rudder design could
> improve so maybe I can keep an associate membership in the church. :-)

Can anyone tell me more about this church? I have been trying to find
these folks who believe that rudders are a "great evil", but have had
very limited success. Many years ago, when I lived in California, I did
find one paddler who was apparently a member. He had recently returned
from a 3-year "trip" down in Baja and was mumbling something about "the
devil in the rudder", but at the time I just wrote it off to too much
peyote. Someone told me that Matt was a leading evangelist for the
church, but as I found out more I learned that he sells boats with
rudders, and has even been known to stick the occasional rudder on a
Mariner boat. This is not consistent with the behavior of a religious
zealot. He does try to explain what he views as the drawbacks to
rudders, but that hardly qualifies him as a purist. I have also visited
a few symposia in the hope of finding anti-rudder purists, but again
came up dry. Perhaps I am not listening carefully enough. Or perhaps I
am listening too carefully. :-)

In my search for members of the Evangelical Church of Rudderless
Paddlers I have, however, stumbled across a different breed of purist:
the "anti anti-rudder-purist purist" (or AARPP). These folks are
characterized as having a strong opinion that rudders are a useful tool
(nothing wrong with that), but who can only explain why others might
have a different (but equally strong) opinion by labeling them as
"religous zealots". I suppose there are some purists on both sides of
this issue. But it seems to me that there are more AARPPs then ARPs. As
for me personally, if you are going to label me as a purist, I would
prefer that you call me an AAARPPP (i.e., an "anti AARPP purist").   :-)

Dan Hagen
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