: I'm currently in the throes of building a CLCSailRig for a CLC Triple. I'm up
: to the point of installling a rudder and therein lies the rub. The plans
: call for simple large rudder and the large size is apparently needed for
: efficient sailing. As far as I can tell, no commercially available rudders
: are large enough. The rudder in the plan doesn't have any nice features
: like kick-up or return, like on a commercially available rudder, and I'm
: not keen on doing the R&D to add these features. So here's what I was
: thinking. What if I take a rudder like a Feathercraft K2 and add a
: removable wooden "sleeve" over the blade large enough to provide
: the required surface area. This arrangement will also allow me to have a
: normal size rudder when not in sailing mode.The only reasons I can think
: of for not doing this is that this might overstress the parts on the
: rudder, specifically the pin used to attach the rudder to the boat. Also,
: the Frankenrudder might not be stiff enough. Unfortunately, I'm not an
: naval architect ( I don't even play one on TV) so I don't know how to
: evaluate the forces. There are probably other pitfalls I'm overlooking.

: Has anyone ever tried anything like this?

I'll bet someone here has a rudder design you can use to just build a rudder with the features you want.

One problem you'd have with an oversized blade on a commercial rudder is it will tend to kick up all by itself just from the increased speed of sailing vs. paddling specially with a boat as long as the triple. So you'd likely have to modify that design anyway, easier to just built it, for me anyway.

Bill H.