The problem is that the linkage for the trim tab is going to have to be way too complicated to be reliable. The parallax problem caused by the fact that the rudder will pivot around a specific center, and the trim tab has to rotate and bend around that motion...then if the rudder can pivot while kicked up, as mine can, the trim tab's mechanism has to be able to deal with that or be destroyed the first time the rudder turns when it kicks up.
If you mock this up with a #10 envelope and a pencil as the trim tab
hinge axis, you'll see what I mean... You can't have it rigid to turn the trim tab, and still be able to deal with the rudder when it is kicked up.
You're going to waste a lot of time, money and effort trying to develop this, and then probably end up designing a windvane that isn't using a trim tab. Then you'll probably regret engineering the trim-tab into the rudder as an integral part.
__________________
Sailingdog
Telstar 28
New England
You know what the first rule of sailing is? ...Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take
a boat to the sea you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps
her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.
—Cpt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity (edited)
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