Laser Rudder design

Eyeper

Active Member
It had nothing to do with Bruce Kirby's comments, however after disliking the stock rudder for many years, here's the one I designed and have been using and liking very much since about 1998. I don't race.
 

Attachments

  • Laser rudder0001 (2).jpg
    Laser rudder0001 (2).jpg
    679.9 KB · Views: 46
Sure. I should clarify it's not purely "my" design. I took an old Hobie 16 rudder and reshaped it to fit in the standard Laser rudder head. And made it more nearly vertical when down. It reduces weather helm and rudder "breaking" effect considerably. Probably 80% of my sailing is in heavy air, where with the stock rudder you are fighting harder to hike the boat flat and prevent stalling .
 
A Hobie 16-ish foil like that was my impression when Kirby mentioned this in a Sailing World magazine interview sometime in the 1990s.

I believe a design that was tested in New Zealand around 2000 had straight edges but was deeper and more vertical than the current blade. It was intended as the next upgrade after the control system redesign, but it was apparently quietly dropped after that other change turned out to be harder to implement than ILCA had expected.

_
 

Back
Top