Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff_H
It was an interesting discussion, which suggested that they saw as many as one or two damaged rudders each year depending on the size of the yard.
The discussion was interesting. They indicated that the incidence of damaged rudders is more related to the popularity of boats with shoal draft and rudders that have a nearly the same depth as their keels. They did not think that it made much of a difference whether the boat had a rudder that was hung off the keel, skeg hung or post-hung. In fact they seemed to agree that prior to the trend in shoal draft post hung rudders that are nearly equal in depth to the keel (like Island Packets for example) the majority of damaged rudders were keel hung rudders since they tended to be closer in depth to the keel than either skeg hung or post hung rudders would have been until sometime in the mid 1990's.
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Jeff, you are using soft language here. They "seemed" to agree....
It just makes sense that an exposed rudder is more easily damaged than one that is protected by the keel. It also makes sense that a rudder that is supported at many places throughout its length is stronger than one that isn't. Think logs and other flotsam that your boat may hit, not just the ground. The keel hung rudder is a far safer bet. I personally know first hand of several rudder stories involving logs, all spade (post hung) rudders (some on power boats) and few ended well. I don't know of any bad stories involving the older style skeg and keel hung rudders (although I am sure some exist). I would think that the only way to really damage a keel hung rudder is to hit something going backwards......
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There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
Shakespeare, Julius Caesar IV, iii, 217
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