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Emergency Rudder Ideas

Oceanslogic said:
@AlanH
I would be interested in a foil...
Nice looking setups..
Click to expand...

Let's see how many people are interested...give it until the end of next week and then I'll write back to him with an estimate of size/number

The foil/cassette that Pat has, that I built in 2008 is this one...

http://www.sfbaysss.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=2096&d=1485218561

It's long enough @ 69 inches and it would probably work fine for my current boat but I think I want to try to build a lighter foil on a longer chord, and a spiffier 'glass, carbon and epoxy cassette. Not that the doorskin&mat cassette doesn't work, but.... I hope my old one makes the rounds and gets a couple of folks on <30 footers to Hawaii. This time I think I want a 72 inch foil, 15 inch chord.

The "swing down" solution is a pretty good one, I think, as long as the top attachment is really beef..
 
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A little more ghetto look. I've since lengthened the tiller by about 2 ft and put on a pin on the tiller so the autopilot can steer this.

E rudder.jpg
 
AlanH said:
I've heard back from a guy in Texas who has a CAD controlled hotwire foam cutter. He can cut high density expanded polystyrene foam foils to use in laminating e-rudders. This is heavier and stronger stuff than what Flying Foam offers, now. He makes pretty big foam model airplane wings...like BIG model airplanes so I expect that he can crank out 6 foot long foils. Not sure on price but probably somewhere between $30-50 per foil.

Is anybody interested in purchasing a foil to laminate up their own e-rudder?
Click to expand...

Just a thought. I looked at the foils sold by flying foam as a possible source for an e-rud blade for the 16 Tranpac, that was before Lightspeed lent me his system. In any event I wanted a longer foil than FF was offering and it seemed reasonable to use stringers to support a lengthening of the section by simply attaching two pieces end on end. The point being I don't think the max length he can cut is the max length of a rudder you could fab if you didn't mind buying two pieces of foam. The experts would know better than me, but my understanding is the foam is only there to provide form, not strength??
 
mike cunningham said:
Just a thought. I looked at the foils sold by flying foam as a possible source for an e-rud blade for the 16 Tranpac, that was before Lightspeed lent me his system. In any event I wanted a longer foil than FF was offering and it seemed reasonable to use stringers to support a lengthening of the section by simply attaching two pieces end on end. The point being I don't think the max length he can cut is the max length of a rudder you could fab if you didn't mind buying two pieces of foam. The experts would know better than me, but my understanding is the foam is only there to provide form, not strength??
Click to expand...

yes, that's true. I just always figure that every little bit helps.
 
AlanH said:
Todd, are the upper and lower bearing surfaces in your cassette made of wood? Is there a steel bushing in there, or something? Is it plywood?
Click to expand...

There is a 1/2" ID delrin tube glassed into the portion attached to the boat, white, and inside the leading edge of the cassette. All fiberglass, epoxy, and a little foam. A 1/2" stainless pin passes through the cassette and the piece on the boat.
 
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