Skeg or Spade?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by BCookCornwall

For extensive world cruising in remote locations a full skeg is a must. Obviously there are issues with some production brands building shoddy spades but the full skeg will always be a better safety option. As far as performance goes, for such a critical item, I would choose safety over performance.

You are confusing a construction which is easier to make strong, with a construction which IS strong. These are different things, and you cannot say that "the full skeg will always be a better safety option." Some full skeg boats are very strong, but many are not. Some spade rudders are very weak (some French production boats), but many are not, and some spade rudders are massively strong, like Dashew's boats.

[Souzag818]

As to sailing "more than 50% upwind" -- you are absolutely right about that. Sometimes it seems to me that it's 80% of the time. And that's why you either need to make the boat capable of making miles upwind, which is hard, and expensive, or just be happy to motor quite a lot of the time (as my Father was).

When I was a young boy of 10 or 12, I was told by this salty old sailor "Young man when you finally buy a sailboat, make sure it goes upwind, cause a piece of plywood will go downwind." Never forgot those words of wisdom, and every boat I've owned went upwind nicely, some better than others. Owned a Southerly made in Auckland that was an upwind machine, but wouldn't surf downwind at all. Still, one of the best boats I've owned...

[double u]

good considerations, Dh! the emergenca tillers get far to little considerations, some are ridiculous & totally impractical.
imho the most important thing with any rudder construction, spade, skeg, whatever is: the boat must not be in danger of sinking when everything is ripped away! So an "indestructable" skeg demands a (partial) bulkhead in front of it in case the whole a$$ of the boat get torn away...

[Seabeau]

My rudder is a barn door type behind deadwood. Not gonna snag anything nor break off.

[double u]

except in reverse

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by double u

good considerations, Dh! the emergenca tillers get far to little considerations, some are ridiculous & totally impractical.
imho the most important thing with any rudder construction, spade, skeg, whatever is: the boat must not be in danger of sinking when everything is ripped away! So an "indestructable" skeg demands a (partial) bulkhead in front of it in case the whole a$$ of the boat get torn away...

Rudder design goals:

1. Hydrodynamic efficiency -- that is, good proportion of lift to drag.

2. Power enough for the purpose, which for mine is a LOT.

3. Balance to reduce autopilot and human helmsman work and improve feel

4. Steers in reverse (keel plays the bigger role here)

5. Strong enough.

6. Fails with least harm to watertight integrity or further efforts to get steering.

7. No place for pot lines to get stuck in.



Is there anything else? If we agree on these design values, then it is easy to see that there is not much to recommend a skeg rudder. Maybe 8 -- easier to design and easier to make strong -- that would be in favor of skeg rudders, but why should we let the designers off easy?