Question to Ris about " no?" rudders etc.

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opie
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Question to Ris about " no?" rudders etc.

Post by opie »

Ris,
Due to your Great Loop thread hint on your mods, I found your stash of pics. If I am seeing things right, have you removed your rudders for your trip? Is that why you have built a skeg? How is steering w/o rudders?
(Apologies if you have explained this previously.)
Ps- Very much like what you have done for your boat to serve your needs.
One hint from my personal experience. In order to lessen the need for vee berth extension, I married a short admiral... :-)

Opie
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ris
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Re: Question to Ris about " no?" rudders etc.

Post by ris »

Opie since my admiral came way before the Mac, I got one taller than I am. But she has nice legs. Taking sails on the loop is not worth it. Having all the rudder stuff on the back, made accessing the dinghy and showering in the back a hassle. You can build a false deck as others have done to cover the rudder stuff but we opted to just remove it. Chinook built a nice cover over the rudder stuff as an example. We just spent 4 hrs going up the ICW from Stuart Florida to Vero Beach with the Auto Pilot. With the ballast empty and traveling at 7.5 mph the boat will move side to side 5 degrees from course. Only went to 6 degrees when waked by other boats. So the skeg helps a lot to keep the boat straight at all times. It is not perfect but it helps a lot. We did this test run with the swing keel up. We had to make a quick 2 day trip home and we are taking one rudder back with us which we will hook to the outboard to test to see if it will make the course swings less than 5 degrees. When you plan to travel 140 days at an average of 40 miles each of those days in 9 months any relief from steering is a relief. We did our first loop with no skeg and no auto pilot and couldn't release the wheel for even seconds without it wondering immediately one way or the other. So we will happily do it with a 5 degree swing. If the single rudder helps we will use it if not into the hold it will go. Two rudders for us was not an option as the one on the port side just gets in the way. Answering questions is not a problem so just ask.
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dlandersson
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Re: Question to Ris about " no?" rudders etc.

Post by dlandersson »

:D
opie wrote:Ris,
One hint from my personal experience. In order to lessen the need for vee berth extension, I married a short admiral... :-)

Opie
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1st Sail
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Re: Question to Ris about " no?" rudders etc.

Post by 1st Sail »

would a couple of shortened stub rudders work if you plan to motor with out sails? You could cut a set out of HDPE for reasonable cost.
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ris
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Re: Question to Ris about " no?" rudders etc.

Post by ris »

We should have made a 2 ft long rudder that was twice as wide as the standard rudder. If we make a shorter rudder it will be made of several layers of plywood epoxied together and covered with epoxy. We are still in Vero Beach waiting on the high wind to get below 14 mph. They are 16 to 20 now. I will take a picture of the single rudder attachment when we move out of here on Thursday. We have not used the single rudder since we put the skeg on the boat. Using the standard 2 rudder set up is not an option for us. So it is one rudder or none. Hope this answers your question.
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ris
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Re: Question to Ris about " no?" rudders etc.

Post by ris »

We ran over 73 miles today at 7.5 to 9 mph. The wheel pilot ran great without the rudder. The winds were 7 to 14 mph. We used the autopilot 80% of the time. Still moves up to 5 degrees each side of the compass direction. Tomorrow I will hook one of The original rudders to the outboard. We will let you know if it reduces the swing each side of the course. Will also take pics of the connection between rudder and outboard.
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