Rudders.

All Forums › Boat Talk › Rudders.

Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • 18th May 2020 at 1:50 pm #13219

      Hi

      Just about completed my homemade wind vane steering system which will use trim tabs on the rudders. I’m pretty confident it will work ( in one form or another) ha ha. My question is does anyone have any knowledge regarding steering using one rudder for wheel operation & one for the wind vane. I read an article where a cat was doing this successfully but wanted to air the thought before I set up both rudders with tabs. Obviously it would be much easier if this idea works and if I cannot find any information I will try it anyway, if it’s not satisfactory I will modify my cunning plan for both rudders.

      also are any HT s near me, it’s very lonely here ( Lowestoft Suffolk)

      regards David ( Twin Star )

      18th May 2020 at 3:05 pm #13220

        Hi David

        I sail Allegro using a servo-pendulum windvane, and disconnect the wheel steering so the windvane has less work to do.  On one occasion one rudder was smashed whilst riding out a gale, which left me with one usable rudder and I reconnected the windvane to the one usable rudder with the damaged rudder lashed fore and aft.

        This worked fine – most of the time. Just once or twice the boat would wonder off coarse  and the windwane was unable to correct because of only one rudder being in use. It steered for several hundred miles like that.

        Mike

        Allegro III

        18th May 2020 at 8:07 pm #13223

          Hi Mike.

          Thanks for the reply, I did write a full reply but it failed to go through so I will try tomorrow.

          Regards David

          19th May 2020 at 1:03 pm #13226

            Hi Again Mike.

            Yes i had wondered if one rudder would have enough surface area but your experience makes the idea sound promising, I know that in bad conditions it may not hold course but most auto helms don’t either ( not with cats). How did your rudder get broken was it floating timber ?

            Thanks again for your reply.

            David

             

          • Author
            Posts
          Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
          • The forum ‘Boat Talk’ is closed to new topics and replies.

          Comments are closed.