My only concern with the integrated rudder is it will tend to spend a lot of the time out of the water. Going down wind on waves, the stern will consistently be lifted clear of the water. Obviously, this is a potential problem with all rudders, but the standard rudder extends well below the deepest point of the boat. The Dagger style rudder at least reaches the keel so has the best chance. Tom's rudder has an exaggerated potential for being lifted free because it does not even reach the keel.

My bias is generally anti-rudder because moving parts are more likely to fail than non-moving, so if the boat can be designed to handle well without moving parts, that would be my preferance. If a rudder is required I like the idea of the integrated rudder because: it looks cleaner, there is less stuff exposed to potential damaging forces, its a cool gadget. But, it needs to be in the water to be worth the effort.

I am currently leaning towards retractable skegs as a good solution that provides most of the benefit of a rudder with fewer moving parts and more chance of being in the water. I haven't felt the need to install a skeg on any of my boats yet, but I might soon, just to see if they are useful. I have put one on a friend's boat, but I haven't tried the boat yet.

> I was sitting aroung this am drinking coffee and discussing our upcoming
> winter boatbuilding project with my wife Judy (see "cloning a
> boat" thread). One of the things I want to change when I copied the
> Tesla was to extend the stern further down and put in an integral rudder.
> I didn't like the ones I had seen where the rudder was at the keel because
> it seemed too fragile when doing rough landings to possibly be hitting a
> rock with this unprotected movable part.

> I had a preliminary image in my mind of a rudder halfway down the stern
> and was trying to describe what it would look like to Judy but I wasn't
> doing a very good job. I was quite pleased when I checked in on Nicks page
> and saw this thread. What you came up with was close what I had envisioned
> and was trying to describe, nice job.

> One question, I think you said there was a removable deck section to allow
> access to the rudder cables. How do you hold this removable section on the
> boat?

> Thanks for filling in the blanks for me...

> Edgar