Re: [Paddlewise] She needed a rudder

From: Nick Schade <schade_at_guillemot-kayaks.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 09:50:23 -0400
At 8:56 AM -0500 9/26/01, James Tibensky wrote:
><snip>
>The rudder does slow the boat, but it is a necessary evil.  I once 
>had the rudder fall off my sprint boat and I was amazed at two 
>things: 1) how hard it was to get where I wanted go and 2) how much 
>the lack of rudder made the boat more tippy.

The rudder will slow the boat relative to the same boat without a 
rudder, but the rudder lets you design a boat that can be faster 
because you don't need to worry about controllability. Even after you 
add a rudder this "uncontrollable" hull can be faster than a 
controllable boat that doesn't need a rudder. So the added drag of 
the rudder is more than made up for by the reduced drag of the more 
efficient hull. Of course if you oversteer, you lose all your gains.

Nick
-- 
Nick Schade
Guillemot Kayaks
824 Thompson St
Glastonbury, CT 06033
(860) 659-8847
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Received on Thu Sep 27 2001 - 06:50:32 PDT

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