Stavanger, Tuesday

.. a too good rudder plus a photo of a rudder with endplate...

A little week ago, in a posting under the "Tystie leaving soon" topic I boldly stated that "There is no such thing as a too good rudder control". Well I may (almost) have to take that back now:

What happened after I left Edmond Dantes after the first transport leg was that the skipper continued alone a few days later. In the evening he reported that he had bent batten 2; the top sheeted batten (longer and stronger than the others). I thought that sounded peculiar and asked how fast he had sailed. "Seven and eight knots, broad-reaching" was the answer. The hull speed (1.34) of ED is 6.5kts and without a flat stern to plane on you need big forces to reach 8kts. Now I think ED simply had a too good rudder, it being both very powerful and with light tiller forces because of the perfectly designed balance area. In other words that rudder gave too little feedback about the increasing rig forces as the sea breeze picked up. In such conditions I know that Johanna would run out of rudder and ask for a reef.

Conclusion: There is still no such thing as a too good rudder control, but if your boat has such a super rudder (like this one on ED), then you should be aware and read other signs to prevent overstressing the rig.

I also mentioned the fitting of endplates to improve rudder control in another posting, A while ago I received a photo from a happy Freedom 30(?) owner who had tried it and liked it. Look here.

Cheers, Arne