Bob,

Darryl tested his T-foil rudders as plain kick-up rudders. Meaning you use the exact same stock as you are using now but not with rudderboards with the little foils attached to the their ends.

He reported that there is no issue hitting the bottom, the T-foil rudders will kick up just the same as the normal rudders do. The T-foils won't break as they need to be strong enough to withstand the normal operating forces anyway. and maybe apart from some extra drag that slows the boat down nothing else happens. This may all not be a bad thing when landing.

The only issue left is leaving the beach with the rudders kicked up. I don't fancy working my way through the surf like that, but experimentation might proof otherwise. Afterall the T-foil rudders aren't that large in area. Also if you don't have to launch through the surf but can walk the boat in to sufficiently deep water and put the rudders down then there is no issue left at all. Then you can just have T-foils added to your current rudderboard design and use all the old kick-up hardware.

Again Darryl sailed the F14's like that for a long time now and everything is still fine. I think they even didn't modify the rudder pintle setup from what the quick snap on system they had on there. Apparently the forces generated on these part are relatively small and it is the large leverage they have there in the back of the boat that does the major part of the work.

I have no experimentation money left otherwise I would order a test rudderboard like that and just fit is to my current ruddersystem and find out what really is a problem and what isn't. The Taipan is one of the hull designs that could really benefit from the T-foils.

I was very impressed by them when I sailed the Stealth a few times.

Ohh, and there is another principle that is of interest here. John Alani expressed a while back how he approaches a landing site with the cassette rudderstocks.

When he approaches shallow water he pulls out the retaining pin, now the rudderboard can slide up and down through the cassette depending on the vertical forces produced by the T-foils. In effect he can lower the rudderboards by moving his weight forward and putting the hull in a small bow down angle. And he can raise his rudderboards by moving his weight back and putting the hull in a bow up angle. He uses this phenomenon to lower and raise his boards when leaving the beach or landing. Just before the rudders are about to hit bottom he apparently moves his weight back and thus have them lift themselfs clear. This way he covers the last stretch of water and then steps off.

This phenomenon may even be an advantage of the cassette tape rudderstocks, because you can always get as much rudderboard in the water as you need/can without having the large tiller loads or having to use your hands or go to the back of the boat ! Your hands are now free to hold the sheet and tiller. Once through the surf you can head up into the wind and fit the retaining pins and go sailing.

I think there is some excellent development to be had with the T-foil rudders and I truly believe that we will see them fitted to beach cats more and more. Especially in the range where hull length are relatively short. Personally I'm planning on using them on the F12 design and I would love to have them on my F16.

Wouter