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 a caveat: the vagaries of Google Mail's editing has caused a couple of my most brilliantly argued points to disappear into the great bit-bucket in the sky. Unfortunately, I'm not quite brilliant enough to remember what I said. So I did the best I could. On 6/24/07, Matt Broze <marinerkayaks_at_msn.com> wrote: > > > Your efficiency point is arguable since rudders themselves cause > additional > drag just being in the water so they need to make up for more than they > loose (with increased control of direction with less effort used--which > may > or may not be the case depending on many other factors, the kayak's design > being a major one of those). 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. 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. 2)Possible injury during carrying, in camp or at sea (sharp edges and corners can create difficulties especially during rescues. One person I'm aware of grabbed the cable to try to stop his kayak from getting away from him in small surf and the cable cut his hand to the bone. I think that this would be a valid point. Whether it's a significant problem I don't know. Perhaps Rob Gibbert or Mike or some of the other rescue experts can comment. 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. > 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. 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. > 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. 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. > 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. 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. 10)Fouling of towing or fishing lines. I think both of these can be mitigated but I will admit that it's more of a problem on a boat with a rudder than on one without one. I'll give Matt 1/2 point on this pending remarks from those more familiar with rescue or fishing. > 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.) 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. 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. 14)Rudders have been hit by sharks. Some have speculated that the motion (or > vibrations from the rudder) acts as a lure to them. Hmm... sea serpents might be a problem too. Another half point. :) 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. > 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. 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. 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. :) Craig Jungers Royal City, WA *************************************************************************** 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. 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