by GavinYoung68 » Fri Apr 08, 2022 9:41 pm
Hi Andy, sorry to hear of your incident, the subject of the rudder has been gently discussed a few times over the years.
The issue you experienced is a strange thing, I have experienced it myself on rare occasions, the strange thing is that it's not easily repeatable so it does not happen often. I have found that good technique and keeping the boat flat means that it becomes a very rare occurance, I have a theory that depending on where you have positioned the centreboard this may help the issue to occur due to turbulence from the tip of the centreboard. The raking forwards of the rudder blade is done to reduce weather helm, especially if you sail with the rig raked well back, it is not done to reduce the rudder cavitation, the rudder winglets that are being fitted are really aimed at smoothing the water flow and reducing the water that sprays out from the bottom of the stock I am not sure we know if it prevents the cavitation or not as it's a rare thing that is not easily repeated.
The best way forward if you feel strongly about it is to raise it for discussion at the class AGM.
Some of the reasons the rudder has not been more seriously discussed are:
1) A new rudder would mean that everyone would need to buy one to keep up which may not be popular.
2) An improved rudder would probably have a larger area and therefore more drag, it might work well in extreme conditions but maybe be slower in all other conditions, meaning nobody would want to change and be at a disadvantage.
3) A few years ago Hartley's invested in proper CNC machined centreboard and rudder blade moulds to ensure a proper cross chord foul profile. The original blades were not really properly profiled as you would expect a modern foil to look so thecurrent rudder blades are definitely much, much better. Having spent time and money to improve the current rudder mould whilst keeping the original general shape to maintain the strict one design so as not to disadvantage anyone with existing boats, rudders etc, the appetite from the build to change again will be low.
So if we want to change the rudder blade it really needs to be discussed at an AGM so that the class members are able to discuss and agree if this would be an approach we want to take. To date no one has brought this up as a serious discussion as its not a common issue and any changes would have an impact, including the possibility of reduced overal performance or for lake sailors where a longer rudder just means you collect more weed in the summer which would be a disadvantage.
If after considering the above you still feel this is something you want to raise then please email myself (Gavin Young Technical Advisor) or our class chairman as an item you would like raised at this years AGM.
Just for info I too sailed a Phantom for many years, I had beautiful cassette style milanes rudder, it worked really well, but you have to also consider the significant difference in cost!!!