Instead of a keel cooler..

How about a rudder cooler
No idea if it's a really cool idea, or allready tested gizmo, but reckon worth for a bit of thinking...
Anyways instead of having plumming around the keel area use the rudder, anyway we must have a rudder anyway so why not to use it to something else too. Like to hear what you think might be +/- and some other thoughts.

 

Um... You have to have a keel too.

Adding this type of crap to a rudder is just silly. The complexity of running the coolant into a rudder hung off the back of the boat by a post, means either bringing the coolant down the post (not easy, prone to friction wear on the hoses, snaking the hoses over the compass) just introduces a lot of serious problems.

The other option of course is to run them externally to the rudder... But how? When there is no point on the rudder to run the hoses from the boat to the rudder at.


All of this to achieve what exactly? The cooler wouldn't work more efficiently. Even if you could figure a way to get everything working correctly, it achieves nothing for a huge increase in design problems.


Just remember just because something can be done, doesn't mean it is a good idea. And saying we "have to have a rudder" so we may as well make it do dual duty is the same as saying well we have a boat so lets have it do dual duty as a submarine, and heck why not as an airplane as well... Then we can have a true ATV.

 

Think of the kitchen faucet with the movable nozzle. The major wear point would be the internal o-ring at the joint. As long as you are willing to keep that up the idea would work. It would require accurate machining to have that joint in direct line with the turning axis of the rudder. This would avoid constant flexing of rubber hoses.

 

Heatpipe. These things are amazing. If you had a strong enough tube you could make a sweet heat sink through the ruddersock. Much easier would be to embed it into the hull. On a rudder you have the moving interface to deal with. Embed into the hull and you have a closed cooling system with no moving parts and completely sealed. You now have a copper flat plate you simply draw cooling from.

This video shows the easy way to make a heat pipe. This pipe he is making will wick about 500 watts of cooling power ALONE. Plain water works even better (just not as easy to make)

This is the technology you see in computer chip cooling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU4eynU6R-8

 

Ahh, come on Teddy.

We want the rudder as clean as possible. It is just drag for 98% of the time. Now you want to make the drag efficiency better?

 

I once drew up a schematic for an airboat that had a maze of angle aluminum welded across the back floor of the aluminum hull with hose fittings to which the cooling hoses would be attached. The floor of the hull would then be the radiator. Recirculated water with coolant as corrosion protection. Simple on paper.

 

This is a totally enclosed cooling system with heat pipes. Water is circulating inside the copper pipes by natural processes instead of being moved with a pump. There a no moving parts, no maintenance, fluids to check, or seals to watch. The small reciever (mirror surface) we attach to a copper plate (embedded flush into the hull) on the hull/keel and the tubes pass to the interior hull where the air fins are. So we have ACTIVE air conditioning of around 150 watts with just on of these units, just add a 12v fan. The temp will blow air the temp of the water. Increase capacity by adding more units in line. The more air passed across the radiator the more cooling you get

Anything with a passive heat sink can be retrofitted to the reciever to upgrade to active cooling. Electronics, batteries etc

 

I knew this would give some.. well.. not so encouraging responses.. Anyway I'm not too serious with this but in some places it might do and have some advantage compared to other possibilities. I mean a simple rudder having a fluid circulation inside without additional appendages..
Something:
For excisting (not metal hull) boats adding AC or fridge etc requiring an additional cooler..
Boats with skeg rudder (easy in a skeg)..
A metal rudder having anticorrosive fluid inside sounds not bad..
As mentioned the hoses going to rudder might be a bit tricky but not impossible, anyway there's much more complicated hydraulic hose installations..
flexible hoses:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/GTR-53216/
http://www.gates.com/europe/brochure.cfm?brochure=2469&location_id=5197
fancy colours with shiny chrome:
http://www.coolflex.com/cfm/welcome.cfm