RE: [Paddlewise] Question for Doug Lloyd

Craig Jungers [mailto:crjungers_at_gmail.com] >>>>>>answered my
diatribe<<<<<<<< my comments are below his when I disagree.



>>>>I've already weighed in on the rudder controversy once ("Using a rudder
and other unmanly acts") and I'm hardly the expert on the numerous kayak
models that Matt is and I certainly respect his opinions and the many hours
he's put in behind the... um... front of the cockpit (ok, maybe that
metaphore doesn't work so well; you get the idea). But I think some of his
responses are arguable. So while I'm hardly the legendary paddler Matt is
(that's never stopped me before) I'll argue the ones I think I have enough
competence to argue. <<<<<<<<

First let me say that Im fine letting anyone choose if they want to use a
rudder or not. I dislike them and I stated my reasons for not liking them
(although personally I dont worry about sharks either way). Some kayaks
absolutely need a rudder so Im certainly not arguing that someone with such
a kayak forgo the rudder. They should however inspect it well before putting
themselves in a position where they would be in a bad way without it. Other
kayaks need rudders some of the time but not often and a with few kayaks
they are so little of an advantage at any time that their negatives far
outweigh the advantages for me. Those are the kayaks I prefer to paddle
because Id prefer not to have to fight the kayak or deal with the things I
dont like about most rudder systems. Craig mentions he paddles with a
Telkwa. I think the Telkwa is a remarkable design and one of the best boats
available for large paddlers. Nimbus has done a very good job with the
rudder in many respects. In fact, when I had a store I sold Nimbus kayaks as
well as my own and a few others that I also found to be great kayaks or were
very good kayaks and an especially good value. The Telkwa has a pretty good
lean-to-turn response at least for someone large enough to easily lean the
kayak when it is gear laden. Ive not used one with a heavy gear load but I
certainly didnt need a rudder with empty it as it both tracked well and
responded so well to a lean that was all it took to compensate for what
little weatherhelm it had (even with the rudder blade up catching the wind
aggravating the weatherhelm). Of the 950+ kayaks Ive tested and timed so
far the Telkwa had the largest ratio of difference in how fast it could be
turned with a strong lean to how slow it turned when I held it level
throughout the turn. I could turn it over three times as fast by leaning it.
I like to see at least twice as fast leaned to level turning ratio in a sea
kayak. That 2 to 1 ratio usually results in a kayak that turns relatively
quickly when leaned but has no trouble with tracking (in calm water
anyway--no matter what the raw numbers arein other words short kayaks can
track as well or better than long kayaks and usually also have the added
advantage of greater maneuverability which can help one more easily stay on
a course). So if Craig is a larger paddler Id say he has made a very good
choice in sea kayaks with the Telkwa.


>>>>>>>>At least one record-holding long-distance paddler (Paul Caffyn -
Google his name for those who haven't run across his exploits before) has
kept records to indicate that he covers more water in less time with a
rudder (a deep rudder) than in a boat with no rudder at all. Or, for that
matter, in a boat with a skeg. This, all by itself, is a powerful argument
for using a rudder. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<



The Nordkapp HS that Paul used has a fairly strong weatherhelm (the HM
version can be very hard to turn when at speed (so making corrections while
on the wave to prevent a broach is nearly impossiblein my experience with
the HM especially the result is a long carved broach off the wave that
doesnt end until the boat is nearly perpendicular to the wave direction or
the wave passes the boat). Id say adding a rudder to the Nordkapp HS was a
good solution for Paul and I have no doubt that he did indeed make better
time with a rudder than without. I should note that Pauls rudder was about
twice as long as rudders normally found on sea kayaks because without the
extra length Paul would have suffered much more in steep following seas
where the rudder often doesnt reach the water as the stern is liftedand if
the waves are steep lifts the rudder blade from the water just when it is
needed most. I dont know what Paul used for foot pedals but if they werent
solid Ill bet he would have been faster still if they were solid




1)Less fatigue. Loose or spongy foot pedals diminish the power of your
stroke in those systems where the rudder pedal slides (because of the
reduction in being able to use thigh and calf muscles to help share the
load). Where the pedals work like gas pedals just the calf muscles are
mostly lost for sharing the hull drag load among your muscle groups.


>>>>>I have never used "gas pedal" rudder controls (except on airplanes) but
my rudders are operated by my tippy-toes while my heels stay firmly planted
against the cockpit sole and my knees are against the foam pads under the
cockpit coaming. This position allows me to use my stomach and thigh muscles
(much like having a friend sit on your legs during sit-ups) while I paddle.
Is this less efficient than making multiple consecutive correction strokes
or putting more energy into a stroke on one side of the boat while edging? I
don't believe so. <<<<<<<

Yes I think it is less efficient. When I paddle my knees and thighs are
rarely in contact with the boat. Im straightening the leg on the stroke
side and pushing on the ball of my foot on a firm pedal. This means Im
using my calf muscles and quads to help power the kayak by using them to
rotate my torso. That is why I hate sliding rudder pedals or even foot
pedals that are too spongy (like yours still are when the rudder is up).
Loose or soft pedals steal energy from my stroke. I cant see how you are
using your thighs in the stroke if they are locked into place pressed under
the deck. I always thought locking one knees in place was a novice mistake
that often quickly resulted in a numb lower body. Ive corrected this
tendency in many whose lower body went to sleep when paddling. I have
learned to expect that is what the paddle maybe doing when I see someone who
looks like they should be a far stronger paddler than they are performing in
the group even though with a spray deck on I cant see what they are doing
with their legs. I was surprised to learn that many instructors, including
Lee Moyer, advocated always having the knees up against the deck. Most
paddlers who started out paddling WW hate most rudder systems precisely
because of the loss of their leg power in the stroke. Those who start
kayaking using a rudder rarely find out what they are missing in the
bargain. Contrary to Pauls experience, I always did better in kayak races
when the water got rougher. In fact, I could still draft stronger paddlers
in rough water but those with rudders didnt have the same fine control I
had and could rarely stay right on my stern. I recall one who tried
commenting afterwards on how he couldnt believe how straight I was going in
the waves without a rudder when he couldnt go nearly that straight using
his rudder. I only have to take one foot off my solid foot pedals while
paddling to tell the difference using my legs to help power the kayak makes.
I start to go in a circle towards the side where my foot is off the pedal.
Using most rudders systems is like having both feet off the pedals.

3) A more jerky ride as the flat rudder surface is batted sideways by wave
crests in steep cross-chop.


>>>>>>>>>While it's possible that this could happen, I'm not sure you'd
notice any difference in ride as in these conditions the kayak is going to
be pretty heavily batted around anyway. And I believe that the reduction in
fatigue by being able to hold a heading without the necessity of taking many
consecutive strokes on one side or increasing the effort required to change
the boat's heading by paddle alone make up for it.<<<<<<<<<<<



It would be less noticeable if the kayak itself also has flat vertical
surfaces or fins to be batted around. The boats I paddle have flared
surfaces at the bow and stern so those side waves lift the ends some rather
than jerk it around sideways as much. A rudder changes that dynamic at the
stern for me and it feels like the waves have a hold of the back of my kayak
and are jerking be around. BTW, I almost never take even two consecutive
strokes on the same side when paddling a straight course in even rough
conditions. Usually a slight shift in my weight is all I need to make course
corrections. Rocking side to side is very easy to do while paddling (some do
it with every stroke naturally, but they should try to learn keep the boat
level for best efficiency in calm water). For those who would like more
information on what I do to save energy while staying on course go to the
Paddling manual on our www.marinerkayaks.com
<http://www.marinerkayaks.com/>  website (in the Manuals menu) and start
with Getting to know Your Kayak about half way into that file, especially
if you are new to paddling or have been paddling with the aid of a rudder in
the past. Those who are expert without a rudder already might still pick up
some tips from the next several sections.


4)The rudder can trip you as it reenters the water during a broach
especially if you try to correct the broach by using the rudder
(straightening your down wave leg off its thigh brace as is common the way
almost all rudder systems set up--with uncrossed cables).


>>>>>>>>Using only a paddle to correct the often huge turning forces in a
broach can result in a paddler  "tripping" over their own paddle and
capsizing at just the wrong time. Every system has potential drawbacks.
<<<<<<<<



Yes, I learned that lesson my second time in a kayak. I was surfing
whitecaps coming into a beach and thought using the paddle down wave might
stop the broaching. Instead it almost tripped me over as the boat ran into
the paddle. Why I didnt learn it on that first try when I almost capsized?
I dont know. The second try could have killed me as after tripping over the
paddle and capsizing I almost stayed stuck by the new (to me) unfamiliar
spraydeck after the resulting capsize. I dont think I ever did it again
that I can recall anyhow. My point is that with most (sliding pedal) rudder
systems if you push the down wave pedal forward in order to point the bow
back down the wave you loosen the grip on the down wave side of the kayak
with your knee and when the rudder trips you upon reentering the water you
dont have your knee giving you a firm grip to prevent the kayak from
capsizing by leaning it into the wave. Of course, if both your knees always
stay jammed up against the deck like you say yours do that might not be a
problem for you. Crossing the rudder cables solved the problem for me and
felt more natural to me as well. Of course, I havent spent enough time
piloting an airplane to have reflexively wanted to use the pedals the other
way. Surprising, piloting a small plane seemed very natural to me when I
first did it years ago. So much so, I would have thought I must have been a
pilot in a past life (if I believed in such things).



5)Broken rudders, cables, corrosion, and wear mean far more maintenance is
required. A rudder dependent paddler can suddenly go "cold turkey" in
extreme conditions if the rudder fails. Or much worse, imagine your rudder
stuck down and hard over to one side during a rough solo crossing. I once
won a kayak race partly because a paddler in a faster kayak had this happen
to him during the sprint at the start. After that he could only go in
circles.


>>>>>>>>>>I think that "far more maintenance" is an overstatement. "Some"
more maintenance, sure. But rudder maintenance has been, at least for me,
minimal. In addition I cannot see the usefulness in foregoing all the
advantages of having the choice between a rudder and no-rudder just to
satisfy some remote possibility of a problem. It's like advocating the
removal of the brake system from a car because dragging one's feet works and
there is less to go wrong. <<<<<<<<<



Some maintenance is FAR more than no maintenance. Nimbus has done several
things to minimize rudder problems and even modified the Feathercraft rudder
with the Big Wheel for years before they talked Feathercraft into making
all their rudders that way so they didnt have to have the Big Wheels
machined any longer. Notice the little tubing the cable runs into right near
where your rudder cables connect to the rudder. That helps keep the flexing
more evenly distributed so the cable doesnt work harden right near the
attachment point as readily. Certainly some rudders are better than others
in this respect and others. I would have liked Nimbus to use the much
heavier cable that we used and had Seda Kayaks use. One Seda Double spent
four years in regular rental use at NWOC on the original heavy duty (3/32
rather than 1/16) cables that have 2.5 times as many strands. Rudder cable
repairs are a constant problem for them with most rudders systems. Id
estimate Ive seen at least two dozen instances of fail rudders with folks
that I was paddling with at the time. Lee Moyer told me that he had more
trouble with damage to adjustable skegs than he had with rudders. That was
my retail experience too but my sample size was so small and all of one
brand of adjustable skeg boat I carried had a problem (even though Id
ordered most of them without the skegs) so I didnt think I could take my
experience as representative of all adjustable skegs. Id still rather
paddle with the sold foot pedals of an adjustable skeg rather than a rudder
hanging off the kayaks stern though.


6)During Sea Kayaker magazine's tank tests a kayak rudder added 10% more
drag (at 3 knots) on both of two separate runs. Even if the added isn't
nearly this high with more modern rudders, the added drag would be a good
reason to use it as little as possible.


>>>>>>>>Once again, whether the added drag (and, admittedly, there has to be
some) of a rudder is worse than the numerous correction strokes that are
taken without a rudder is a matter of conjecture. Balanced against the
increased risk of shoulder injuries because of the added paddling effort of
making those correction strokes, I'll take the rudder, thanks.<<<<<<<<



Once again, I hardly ever paddle harder on one side than the other to keep
on a course, even in difficult conditions. Yes, I had to teach myself
several tricks to do so because I didnt want to put up with the problems
that a rudder added to my paddling. The tricks I know Im doing I have
listed on our website (for free) for anyone who wants to try them out. There
may be several other things I do, that Im unaware of, that work for me.
Your body will learn to become efficient if you paddle in rough conditions
without a rudder to guide you and are willing to experiment a little. You
may surprise yourself how much better you can get fairly quickly if you
struggle for a bit in difficult condition (in a safe place) without
resorting to the rudder.



7)Due to the toggle's location the hull usually bangs against your leg when
carrying the stern. Changing tired hands on the toggle often means a choice
between risking back or groin injury or putting the clean (wet) hull down in
the sand.


>>>>>>>>Carrying a kayak by its toggle is not always a good idea. I wrap a
nice thick webbing strap around the stern of my Nimbus Telkwa and use that.
Or I carry the stern from the bottom of the hull so I'm positioned to lift
it over obstacles.<<<<<<<<<



The Telkwa has a relatively long fine stern that makes the carries you use
(and even using the toggle) a lot easier with it than with a lot of kayaks
including ours. The rudder on the Telkwa is still a problem if you want to
switch sides without getting the bottom sandy before putting it on your car.
Most rudder users learn to grab the front and leave their poor helper to
deal with the rudder end. I dont often let them get away with this. I
figure if they want the advantages of the thing they need to suffer the pain
from it rather than foisting it off on me.


8)Slower turns while moving because you straighten your knee to push the
rudder pedal rather than lifting that knee to tilt the kayak. In testing
over 500 North American kayaks leaned just short of putting the cockpit
underwater I turned them in an average of 11.3 sec though 180 degrees.
Keeping the kayaks level I averaged just over 19 seconds for the same turn.


>>>>>>>>>Well, first of all, my rudder pedals are operated by my toes with
my heels planted against the cockpit floor and my knees firmly in touch with
the pads glued to the underside of my kayak's deck so I don't "straighten"
my leg to turn. Secondly, I suppose it's likely that kayaks can turn faster
while heavily edged than on the flat. How many paddlers edge just short of
putting the cockpit underwater? That has to be a pretty low number. And, of
course, no law says you cannot use both the rudder *and* edging to make a
turn. I wonder if Matt measured that. Even so, most of us use a rudder as a
device to reduce course corrections and to keep a constant paddling cadence.
Under these circumstances it's not likely that large turns would be
necessary.<<<<<<<<<<<

Perhaps this is an advantage to having your knees always in contact with the
underside of the deck. Yes I do time the turn with the rudder and a lean. I
lean as far as I dare go in that situation (but no more than where the
cockpit would take on water if I didnt have a spraydeck on. I set that as
my limit because sometimes I dont have a spraydeck to fit the cockpit of
the boat Im testing. With good knee braces I could turn most boats faster
still if I leaned even more but Im trying to be consistent. If the knee
bracing situation is poor I lean the kayak as far as I dare. With a rudder
and reasonable knee bracing I can usually lean the boat with the rudder
turned to its maximum to the limits I artificially set in order to be
consistent even without a sprayskirt on. To do this with a rudder I must
point my toes as much as I can while at the same time lifting my leg to grip
the cockpit edge with my knee. It is a pain and sometimes results in leg
cramps for me but I do it in the name of science and the consistency in the
test results if I can. If I cant, I lean the kayak as far as I dare without
risking a serious chance of capsize. In most cases the rudder and lean
together turns the boat in about the same time as without it. When there is
a difference it is more likely that the rudder slows the turn slightly. In a
few cases the turn is faster with the rudder. This is usually on very quick
turning kayaks when the rudder can be angled over especially far. Rarely is
a spin in place as fast with the rudder down though. Most likely, if you
cant turn a kayak as fast without the rudder as when using the rudder you
need to practice turning more without the rudder to improve that skill.

9)Slower spins because of the rudder's drag and often inability to move
nearly 90 degrees from straight back (the average of 225 tests was 25%
slower with the rudder down than up.)


>>>>>>>>>Again, no law says you cannot use both an edge and the rudder
simultaneously. And there is no rule that you cannot retract the rudder when
you want to. Certainly there are times when having the rudder up is
preferable. Just as there are times when having a rudder is helpful. Choice
is a wonderful thing.<<<<<<<



The times Im referring to were all with the kayak tilted. The times are
usually much slower when I dont edge the kayak (which is also a test I do.
For instance with the Std. Telkwa  my times in seconds were:  360 degree
spin: leaned w/o rudder 22sec, leaned w/rudder 29 sec., held level w/o
rudder 27 sec., 180 degree turn at speed: leaned w/o rudder  9 sec., leaned
w/rudder 12 sec., level w/o rudder 28 sec.. If yours is the Telkwa Sport
model, my times (in the same order) were 23, 27, 29, 10, 11, 29. You might
time yourself the next time you paddle. For the 180 I use distant landmarks
or the sun and its shadow (of my head on the deck) for my reference points.
I weigh about 190 pounds. If you are in the same weight range you should get
similar times. If you are faster you are better at it than me or lighter
weight. If much slower (and you are not a lot heavier) you should practice
this more. A fast turn can come in handy at times. Turning a long kayak into
strong winds is one of those times.



11)A rudder aggravates weatherhelm by adding windage at the stern.


>>>>>>>>If this is happening then the fix is simple: deploy the rudder and,
viola!, the problem disappears. But what happens if you are in a rudderless
kayak that you (or your guide) has mis-loaded and has weatherhelm? Live with
it and the increased risk of shoulder injury caused by all those repetitive
correction strokes on one side of the boat until you can unload and re-load
the boat properly? Heck, I'll take the rudder, thanks. (Author's note:
Violas are more fun than voilas.)<<<<<<<



Just use the techniques in the Paddling manual to compensate and remember
to pay a little more attention to getting as much of your gear as possible
weight into the rear next time (and check the side to side trim is level
before starting out. If the loaded boat doesnt float level before I get in
it I shift  a 2 liter (soda) bottle of water or two from one side to the
other. Remember even with the rudder the stronger the weatherhelm the more
drag the rudder will cause by being angled over more to correct it so even
rudder paddlers should be trying to minimize weatherhelm in their kayaks.



12)Correcting weatherhelm with a rudder adds considerably more paddling
resistance because you must angle the rudder to go straight. This is
equivalent of dragging a stick in the water as wide as the area the angled
blade sweeps out to control the weather tendency of the boat.


>>>>>>>>This assumes that the boat would track straight under the same
conditions if it had no rudder. Not all - dare I say, not many? - kayaks
have this characteristic and almost no kayak has it under all load and wind
conditions. One way to change weather helm problems is pack the boat
differently, take gear off the deck (especially the rear deck). And, with a
rudder, deploy the rudder. But, again, is it more efficient to have to make
many paddle strokes with only one blade of a two-blade paddle? I don't think
so. <<<<<<<<<<



I agree, but again there are so many ways to correct for weatherhelm while
paddling before having to make more strokes on one side than the other (see
Paddling manual for those techniques I know). Either with or without the
rudder the more neutral the kayak is when paddling forward the easier it is
going to be to keep the kayak on course. Some kayaks weatherhelm so bad that
a rudder is almost an essential. Others, and you are right they are few in
number, remain so neutral you rarely have to fight with them to keep a
course reasonably close to the way you want to go. With those, the drag of
the rudder in the water is a net loss but it the windage on the rudder is
making it weatherhelm then putting it in the water to correct that is a loss
over not having put a stored rudder back there with its blade flat to the
wind in the first place.



13)Backing up, the rudder blade has a strong tendency to flop to one side or
the other. (You might also be stopped or tangled more by seaweed as well).


>>>>>>>Um.... pull the rudder up when you back up if this is a problem. As
for weed, my rudder clears itself of weed when I retract it anyway. But when
I'm paddling in weed (generally in rocky areas or very close to shore, I
keep the rudder retracted. I think weeds on my paddle blades are a worse
problem than weeds on the rudder, anyway, as they can "grab" the paddle
unexpectedly and create a "tippy" moment.<<<<<<<<<<



I know folks who had the swell lift kelp on to their back deck and had the
rudder make it very difficult for them to get it off again. Your Telkwa
kayak has a great stern shape for backing out of kelp (if you can move
forward enough to lift the rudder up out of it anyway). Those with more
squared off sterns tend not be able to go backward in kelp even with the
rudder up. Some bows are so plumb and deep it is even a problem going
forward in kelp because they dont slide up and over it well. If the weeds
effected the paddle blades of the non rudder paddler more than the rudder
paddler you would have a point but I think both need to use the paddle. In
those conditions I try to pull the paddle out right where it went into the
water and I try to pick the most weed free spots to plant the paddle if only
to be able to bury the blade in the water easier.



15)Rudders take time to work and the delay in feedback that delay causes
often results in over control and zig-zagging. There is also less fine and
precise control when using a pedal/cables/rudder system. I've found it is
far more difficult to thread through a tight place with rudder control than
by using paddle and lean control alone.


>>>>>>>>If it's Matt's contention that one does more zig-zagging with a
rudder than without one then I have to say that this has not been my
experience. And, once more, I have to say that using *both* the rudder *and*
edging I think I can turn faster. Even so, I can always retract the rudder
and thread through a tight place festooned with weeds. And what about the
asymmetrical hull problem. I've owned a couple of kayaks that had a natural
tendency to turn in one direction over the other. I even fastened a small
trim-tab to the stern of one of them to alleviate this annoying tendency.
Now, I suppose it's arguable that my butt is not symmetrical and that was
the problem all along, but I think a rudder would have helped. <<<<<<<<<



This is worse with kayaks that are quite squirrelly and tend to skid at the
sterns. The rudder is needed to keep them going straight at all. Ill bet
you I can thread a narrower (relative to your kayaks width) slot without
hitting anything at high speed without a rudder than either you (or I) can
with the rudder down. There are some slalom gates at the U of W Arboretum
here in Seattle which are a good place to practice and where a miss is of
little consequence. With a paddle and leaning I can thread a gate that gives
me less than an inch on each side. I might be able to do that with a rudder
in the water to if I didnt use it at all. However, if I quit paddling
before reaching the gate and just used the rudder for control then the gate
would have to be much wider apart to get cleanly through it consistently.
With the original version of the Eddyline Orca (before the 2 to 3 inch deep
keel was added to it) I had so little control with the rudder I slowed down
before going through some highway pillars that were about eight feet apart.
I was embarrassed because I still hit one of the pillars in a borrowed
kayak. Your kayak tracks very well and turns well with a lean too. Since the
rudder doesnt kick the stern over that fast there is less overcontrolling
with a kayak like yours than a more maneuverable one.


16)It gets in the way of learning other means of controlling the
difficulties that it can help correct and often creates a depencency on the
one part of the paddle/kayak/paddler system most likely to fail. And the
rudder is most likely to fail at the times it is most needed by the rudder
dependant rudderer/paddler (in rough and windy conditions when it is being
put under the most stress).


>>>>>>>>>This point is the one most often made in defense of having a kayak
without a rudder and I'm not at all sure it's true. That somehow no one can
figure out how to turn a kayak without using the rudder. This weekend I put
a 6-year-old girl into an 11-foot Loon and let her paddle away from the dock
all on her own. When it came time to turn back I just yelled, "Paddle on
only one side until you're turned around." Amazingly, she followed those
simple instructions and a few minutes later bumped the nose of her kayak
into the dock. In a 15mph wind, too. Then she went right back out. If a
6-yr-old can almost instantaneously grasp the method of turning a kayak
without a rudder then I'm pretty sure an adult can too.<<<<<<<<<<



Not nearly as well as someone who is well practiced in a wide variety of
conditions and is in a kayak that handles well without resorting to a
rudder. Some boats are dependent on their rudders even when paddled by
someone well practiced at not using a rudder. Some paddlers who were good
paddlers in good kayaks but put a rudder on them anyway have lost the edge
they once had and when the rudder later broke they didnt have nearly the
skills paddling without one they once had. This happened to a very good
paddler from Norway I knew (and had paddled with in some extreme winds on
the West Coast of Vancouver Island before he installed his ingenious rudder
that even worked with his sliding seat after he returned to Norway). I heard
the story of when the rudder broke from another paddler I knew who was
visiting him in Norway and paddling with him when it happened. Use it or
loose it might be applicable here. His original Mariner kayak that he took
back to Norway became the basis for the kayak built in Europe known as the
Svalbard. When a long time kayak builder from Sweden visited my shop he
insisted that the Mariner II he saw on our shelf  was a copy of the
Svalbard.  I asked him if the Svalbard had been around since 1986 like the
Mariner II had. Ingvar later sent me a brochure on the Svalbard. Not only
did it look very similar but the deck rigging on it was virtually identical.
I asked my friend in Norway about it and he said he had told the designer he
should take a very close look at his Mariner kayak before designing his own.
Apparently he did. He even made some of the same changes to it that we had
made to the original Mariner to make the Mariner II.



>>>>>>>>In conclusion I have to say that I'd never insist that anyone put a
rudder on their boat if they didn't want one; after all, some of my best
friends paddle in boats without rudders. And while Matt Broze is a fine
paddler, a remarkable designer, and a living library of facts on virtually
every sea kayak built he is, like all of us, not without his prejudices. And
I think that rudders are one of them. <<<<<<<<



I couldnt agree more. To each his own. I only wanted to answer Jerrys Why
not? argument. For me there are a lot of reasons that many rudder users
never consider or even realize might be effecting them. Im for everyone
making their own choice in the matter. To me there is something much more
satisfying about controlling a kayak with body English than working the
puppet blade on the back of the kayak with strings and toe movements. Ive
likened the difference to putting little rudders on skis to turn them.
(running wires up the legs in order to control them with your hands. But
with skiing as with kayaking if you dont need the complications added by a
rudder why put up with it on your equipment.

>>>>>>>>>The bottom line is effort and energy. There is no arguing the fact
that a rudder in the water adds drag and even more drag while creating a
turning moment. These can be measured, more or less, using instrumentation
but the mere act of measuring can, like quantum mechanics, alter the
results.

There is also no arguing the fact that one must expend extra energy to turn
a kayak without a rudder; one either has to make several consecutive strokes
on one side of the boat or edge the boat and add some effort to the
appropriate stroke. The energy thus expended is almost impossible to measure
and, again, any such measurement would almost certain affect the results.
Does making three consecutive strokes on one side of the kayak to turn XX
degrees result in the expenditure of less energy than pushing a rudder pedal
and having it move the stern? This is the crux of the argument and every
paddler has to determine his or her own answer and live with it (until they
buy the next kayak, anyway).

Does the increased shoulder pain of a few of my no-rudder pals reflect the
increased efforts in turning or holding a steady course or is it just the
inevitable consequences of aging? I don't know. I don't know of any way to
find out. But I'm older than all of them and my shoulders are just fine,
thanks. <grin>

So now, having defended rudders against Matt, I'll admit that Matt's
prejudice (or at least insistence) against rudders led him to design and
sell kayaks that perform superbly without them. If I had a Mariner (and I
just missed buying an XL last week) I would never put a rudder on it. But
for long trips in a heavily-loaded boat I'll take my Nimbus Telkwa with its
rudder and use that rudder guilt-free. And if the rudder breaks I'll muscle
on cuz a 6-yr-old showed me how to turn. :) <<<<<<<<<<



Ill be happy to argue the fact that one must expend extra energy to turn a
kayak without a rudder if you mean more than when using a rudder that
extra  in that sentence seems to imply. The only time I make several
consecutive strokes on the same side is when I want to turn a moving kayak
as quickly as possible. Rocking a reasonably tippy kayak from one side to
other is virtually effortless when also swinging a paddle and arms around
and that is usually all I need to do to control my kayaks under all but the
most difficult of conditions. In those more difficult conditions a little
bit of stern draw at the end of the stoke on the side Im rocking the kayak
towards usually takes care of that and adds more power to the turn/course
correction helped by rocking. Yes, in some kayaks I have to go further down
my list and do the things that require progressively more energy. How far
down the list depends on the tendencies and the lean-to-turn ability of
those particular kayaks (or with say a heavy gear load in a wide stable
kayak that becomes more work to get it to lean).



I hate having to paddle using one side harder than the other. It was just
such experiences with the kayaks we then owned that got us thinking about
how we could modify our kayaks to get rid of those tendencies and still keep
the solid foot pedals we didnt want to give up. Those discussions
progressed into what we would do if we designed our own kayaks to correct
the things we didnt like about the kayaks we were paddling. That lead to
studying the other aspects of hull design to make the kayaks move as easy as
possible through the water and have a sea kindly hull in waves. You see I am
basically lazy. It is astonishing that some people think that paddlers who
dont use a rudder have some macho need to be independent of the things and
therefore feel they have to justify their using a rudder. Much of the skills
in paddling strokes are to increase ones efficiency. This is especially
important to a racer. If I could have been faster by using a rudder I would
have done it in my racing days.  Im sixty-one and so far my shoulders are
still fine.



Id be the first to admit that a six year old might make an excellent
paddling skills role model. I usually learn much better when playing,
goofing around and experimenting. Far better than I do from listening to and
believing the predjudices of someone certified and tested by the further
certified instructor trainers who got there first and institutionalized
their own prejudices and are still passing them down the chain of command no
matter how irrelevant they have become. Instruction cant hold a candle to
play when it comes to learning. School systems make one stiff and
self-conscious. Those are about the last things one needs to be when
learning physical skills. If I had a six year old again I would endeavor to
keep her away from institutions with teachers as long as possible. Sit
still and fold your hands in front of you. All rise for the flag salute.
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************