the ruddercraft rudder on the M15 is heavy when compared to jerry's wood design. the M15 is less forgiving of having weight aft than the M17. you want the M15 to be very close to level on the waterline (bow to stern) when off the wind, or just a bit forward on the bow to get the best performance when sailing to weather. i never felt the M15 had any rudder problems. some feel she can have to much weather helm ... but to me she is just giving you important feedback you are overpowering the boat and need to reef the main. :: Dave Scobie :: M17 #375 - SWEET PEA - www.m17-375.webs.com :: former M15 owner - www.freewebs.com/m15-named-scred :: Sage Marine - www.sagemarine.net (or .org, or .com, or .us) --- On Sat, 5/14/11, Daniel Rich <danielgrich@gmail.com> wrote:
Interesting. I have an Ida sailor blade installed on my M15 stock tiller assembly, and have the old wood blade in my garage. They were like that when I purchased the boat. The previous owner far preferred the Ida sailor blade, as it is deeper and he felt he had better control. My complaint with the blade is it weighs a ton, and since I can't put the boat in the water with the rudder installed on the trailer first, since it droops down and might get wrecked, I have to install it on the water. Wrestling the thing into the gudgeons is hard! So, do you think the performance of the stock blade is pretty good? And if so, should I reinstall it and try that?
Daniel On May 14, 2011, at 12:52 PM, W David Scobie wrote:
smiley:
the M15's rudder is _really_ good. discussion of jerry's design expectations for rudders can be reviewed here
http://www.sagemarine.us/SCA_articles/smalltalk_55.html
(thanks to SMALL CRAFT ADVISOR for allowing Sage
Marine to host jerry's article)
:: Dave Scobie :: M17 #375 - SWEET PEA - www.m17-375.webs.com :: former M15 owner -
www.freewebs.com/m15-named-scred
:: Sage Marine - www.sagemarine.net (or .org, or .com, or .us)
--- On Sat, 5/14/11, Karen and Smiley <magoo252@comcast.net> wrote:
Anybody have thoughts on this subject and while we are at it is an IDA rudder worth the investment for a M 15?
Thanks Smiley