Quote:
Originally Posted by KENDO
I was hoping that widening the rudders would compensate for this and possibly give me better performance at slower speeds such as docking, anchoring or crossing shallows.
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In addition to seriously increasing leeway while close hauled, you also risk seriously messing up the balance of the boat. You are taking lateral area away from the keels, and moving it back to the
rudder. This will have the effect of moving the center of lateral resistance aft pretty dramatically, which will increase
weather helm.
Also, don't forget, you will need to keep the rudders "balanced" and add area to the front and back of them. If you just add area to the trailing edge of the rudders, you will GREATLY increase
steering loads.
A boat is a "system" and chopping it up can have serious consequences, that might not be obvious beforehand to the "novice" navel architect.
But, again, in your charter business you might not care because I suspect you don't spend a lot of time sailing hard on the
wind.
If the resale value isn't important, then it's your boat!