Ultimate rudder design

[SamK]

Hello everyone,
We are the manufacturers of rudders for dinghies and catamarans.
As we continuously trying to improve our product and services we would like to ask you to share opinions about your current or previous rudder systems.
Advantages/disadvantages, reliability and etc...

What requirements do you set for rudder system? How durable should it be?
Do you think that "One Design Control" motto may significantly slow down various present boat class improvement?

Thank you kindly for participation in this discussion.

The issues I fell are important are.

1. Balance of a rudder. The rudder soulg have enough area forward of the hinge to allow the load in the helm not to be too high.

2. Sufficiently high resistance to stall of the blade that under load the boat will continue to track well.

3. Correct profile to the trailing edge to reduce hum.

Points 1 and 2 are related in a manner but they are distinct. 3. is important because the drag that is felt on a rudder that is vibrating is much higher than one that is not. Damping the rudder with rubber in the rudderbox dosen't help mush as energy is still being lost into the rubber. The only way to stop it is to reduce or eliminate the eddies shed off the trailing edge.

A poor rudder can make a great difference between teh enjoyability of a boat. Much of my sailing has been done on Hobie 14's. One was terrable the other mush better. Planing the trailing edge a 45 degrees helped a lot.

One design rules can stop development but that is what they are supposed to do. With a one design you get the beast and worst features that the designer put into the boat. Hopefully the good outweighs the bad...

Alex