I wrote: >> Which is why one of our designers puts his rudders on the side of the >>kayak. >[J.W. wrote] >I just finished reading "The Developent of the Rudder" by Lawrence Mott. The >early boat builders had some good reasons for using side mounted (or quarter >rudders) rudders. The kayaker I was referring to has a Skerray as has one of his friends. Don took to the skeg and made it very narrow and hung a rudder blade on it, shaped such that it would retract if it hit something. He says the best thing is to watch people's reactions as the owner makes the kayak steer (while not paddling) by leaning, by leaning either way and turning to the same direction (no matter which way it is leaned), the watchers not realising there is a rudder under the water. For Don's own kayak he removed the skeg and mounted a rudder on the side, short blade because it was now away from the end where it would be out of the water on top of a wave and retractable such that rolling on the beach or rocks, the blade was against the hull and therefore wouldn't be damaged. The blade is PVC so if it is down it will bend under excess loading. I pointed out that he'd mounted it on the port side instead of the steerboard side. "Ahh." he said, Don't you know the water goes down the plug-hole the opposite direction in the southern hemishpere?" So I named it the "Southern Viking Rudder". When Don had a Nordkapp he mounted two rudder blades on it. To steer he "dipped" the blade required as each blade was set to turn the kayak in the opposite direction. With this he had the advantages of no rudder in the water when not needed, as much in the water as needed if needed. These were foot actuated, hinged pedals, bungy returns on the blades. With both blades fully down there would be drag, great for slowing on a too fast surfing run. >> A rudder can be considered to be a "fully" developed skeg. So, the "FULLY" developed skeg ???? !!!!! >I get the impression that New Zealand builders have devoted more effort to >developing better rudder systems than we have here in the US and that many >of the objections to rudders may have has much to do with poor design and >construction as to rudders per se. I would agree, it is a small industry here and most designers get to the national forum and get to hear what paddlers think about poor design, from some louder than others :-) Unfortunately for some manufacturers, 50% of their sales are exports to Asia with a demand for certain outfitting, not because it is good but because that's what the North Americans sell. In other words they don't don't know what is good or bad, a "if it is sold in the USA it must be right attitude". >Should you blame the failures that result on >"rudders" or the manufacturer? Poor design is the greatest problem, even skegs have a lot of variants in their quality. >Sorry, I digressed. Back to skegs. Not sure what constitutes a "true skeg" I suspect the writer should have used the term "variable depth skeg". Paul's original skeg was either up or down with difficulty and poor fit if not fully down. Alex . . Alex (Sandy) Ferguson Chemistry Department University of Canterbury New Zealand *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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