Does anybody have a side view picture of an M15 rudder? I would like to see Jerry's idea about a perfect rudder. My original Montgomery 17 had the"slide up and down a ss bar". It raised and lowered straight up and down with a simple line led through a hole in the rudder with one end attached to a pad eye, the other end made fast to a deck cleat. It raised and lowered easily but now that I think about it there was little chance it would have raised itself due to thin water. Most likely it would have torn out the lower grudgeon. I sailed it mostly over very soft bottoms here in east Texas so grounding was more of a smersh than a smash. On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 7:17 PM, Tom Smith <openboatt@gmail.com> wrote:
The M15 rudder and the M17 rudders are different animals. I'm not sure what year Jerry went to the kickup M15 rudder, but having owned an M15, I agree it's a wonderful solution.
The original M17 rudder did not lift at all. The next (and final) generation lifted straight up on a shaft maybe a foot or 18 inches.
The IdaRudder is a vast improvement kickup-wise, though I don't know if the foil is an improvement or not. t