mmiller wrote:
Hobie 16? The transoms tilt outwards at the bottoms. I think further out of alignment on that plane is better since you depend on the rudder as lateral resistance. More parallel would mean that the lee rudder would be heeling more off-vertical than the way they are designed.
That is what I was thinking, but I had never really given it much thought before, and was curious if it had ever been discussed. Granted there isn't a ton of room for adjustment within the factory tolerances.. But still..
I have just read a few things here and there discussing canted center/daggerboards on boats, but haven't really seen anything good discussing the same theories with rudders, and certainly nothing about such things on a H16.
I imagine this is mostly because most people are not silly enough to waste time thinking about such things.. but still... I am just curious if indeed you might be able to create less drag/chance of cavitation on the rudder by canting them inboard giving up some of the lateral resistance. Or if maximizing the outboard (at the tip of the rudder) angle will indeed give more lateral resistance without causing extra drag or dulling the feel of the helm.
Just curious as it would seem foiling boats are canting/curving foils inboard to increase stability/decrease cavitation, yet on things like the AC72 it looks like the rudders are canted outboard just a tiny bit. The Volvo 70 Monohulls are the only boats I have seen with rudders canted wildly outboard, but they also run higher heeling angles due to the monohull... A class boats, Marstorm 20's, H20, f18's f16's... You name it.. If any of them run any boards or rudders canted outboard it is by not very much.
I guess I am more interested in discussion of the theory, reasons, and science for why more cats don't try to match heeling angles a little closer, and maybe less interested in screwing around with it on my H16