Rick Good point, but it did not help. Raising the tiller to its fully up position raised the rudder to about 45 degrees, where the pull rod was perpendicular. To get the rudder in the fully raised position, either the rudder would have to have enough bouyancy to carry it the rest of the way or I would have attach a lanyard to the rudder and pull it the rest of the way up. The attachments to the new rudder are identical to the wood rudder, so I am inclined to think it is a matter of weight and/or bouyancy. As I recall, my wood rudder would kick up and automatically go to the fully raised position, or I could fully raise it by lifting the tiller. None of this happens with the new rudder. I guess if I grounded, the rudder would kick up and I could hold it up with the tiller, but that's a lot to do while trying to figure out how to get out of trouble. The new rudder hangs 33 inches below the keel. It intuitively seems like the more rudder in the water, the more lift and control you get, but there has to be a limit where drag cancels out any advantage. I suppose there are books on the subject, but I don't want to get that deep into the subject. Perhaps there is someone on the list that has the answer. Bob Becker 1982 M15 #208

Bob,

Try increasing the tension on the shock cord helper. I found that too much tension on the helper cord causes the rudder to kick up when barely lifting the tiller.

Rick Langer M15 #337

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Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 23:42:36 +0000 From: bobjudy2@comcast.net Subject: Re: M_Boats: Regarding Ida Sailor Marine M15 new rudder (Long) To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Message-ID:

<021620052342.16156.4213DA6C0004779E00003F1C22007614380E0C9D9D0A050C0A0D@com cast.net>

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I bought a new rudder from IdaSailor last fall for my M15. My wood rudder

was

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42" but I thought I would try a longer one, since I could always cut it off. The longest they offered was 48", so I went with that.

I thought one factor that would limit rudder length would be if it hit the ground while on the trailer. The 42" rudder just cleared the ground when I had my original TrailRite trailer; with my new Pacific trailer, I had more clearance, hence the longer blade was worth a try. I know that this should not be an important consideration from the view of a naval architech, but if I was making something for general sales, I would want to consider some of my 'Damn Fool' clients who would blame me for their mistakes. (I always remove my rudder when launching and recovery, but still occasionally qualify for the DamnFool category)

Long story short: I think the longer rudder sails better, but it is significantly heaver and the kick up feature does not work very well. I haven't figured out if it needs a longer lift lever from the rudder to the tiller, or a more extreme redesign (move the pivot hole?) I do not spend much time in thin water, so I will probably live with the longer rudder and poor kick-up performance. (It will kick-up but not lift-up all the way)

It has also aquired a brownish tint from the crud in SF Bay. I have to wonder if it will retain its original brilliant white color; soap did not seem to clean it.

I hope this long winded narration helps.

Bob 1982 M15 #208

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