I don't know if anyone is using it, but fiberglass reinforced nylon injection molding is probably going to be a lot lot stronger for relatively long thin foil shaped sections. I'm not sure of the details but I think that is one flavor of RIM (resin injection molding) technology. It is used for high strength high quality lower price point (than pure glass or carbon fiber) paddle blades (kayak/canoe). I've never seen anyone use HDPE for that and I can't imagine it would work well. cheers, John S. On 06/29/2015 12:45 PM, jnschum wrote:
It seems like HDPE may just not be a suitable material for rudders in the thickness commonly used for this size of boat. It looks like it fatigues right where support from the stainless cheeks stops; right where you would expect. It seems to hold up well on smaller craft where the rudder is proportionally much larger. Its too bad since it made such a nice blade. Hopefully someone will come up with a clever design idea or maybe a replacement plastic. A nice thing about these events is that they test the boats beyond the limits that most of us use them and we learn a lot.
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