: Has anyone tried this side mounted rudder system?

We have one inventor/designer, Don, here who came up with that (or variant) a decade ago. I found out a few years latter that the Australians a decade before that had also tried it and dismissed it due to drag at the blade/hull interface.

Interestingly their's and Don's were both mounted on the port side of the kayak, not the steerboard side. When quizzed, Don said, "Obvious, the water goes down the plug-hole the opposite way in the southern hemisphere." At that point I named it the "Southern Viking Rudder". I found out latter the Aussies had already called their's the "Viking rudder" - great minds and all that.

Don's blade came up and over sideways on to the deck when stowing, requiring only one more string that a normal rudder system - reminded me of a P40's (aircraft) undercarriage.

Why mount it on the side? To get it further from the stern and to be more likely not to come out of the water as the stern rises on a wave. And there was no problem with amount of rudder turn on Don's.

Alex