Heather,

My wife has an Arctic Tern and she weighs 135. She has a little trouble with the boat in high winds with an empty boat, but with 50lbs of gear it tracks terrifically and does not need a rudder on any point of wind. The boat is neutral. In fact, the boat loves rough water.

: Hi Y'all, I'm building an arctic tern for an expedition on the Sea of Cortez
: this winter, in which I'll be carrying at least a hundred pounds of gear,
: (I'm 5'6", 130). Would you reccommend a rudder or not? Seems like
: most say the tern doesn't need a rudder, but does that consider the
: unpredictable conditions, weight of gear, etc?