Favourite Photos

I think when a rudder stalls, it's due to the water flow detatching and air being sucked down the low pressure side from the surface, and is called aeration, or something like that.

A dinghy's never going fast enough to boil the water, so cavitation is a commonly used misnomer in this case.

Quite a few classes have rudders with a narrow chord where they pierce the surface. The 470s have been doing it for years. Not sure it makes a huge difference, and it's quite a test of foil building to go making it narrower right at the point where it needs the most strength!

I'm fairly sure that "short chord" is a reference to the width of the rudder at that point. - you will see the concave curve on the top of the rudder making it a shorter shord at that point. Nothing to do with rope.

Of course I may just have made a fool of myself there. 

er, wow.

Check out their very very groovy rudder, which has some pretty amazing features like the short chord at the point where it pierces the surface to reduce ccavitation at high speed.

I recon thats the most amazing foil I've seen since the hydrofoiling moths. I know what I'll be making for my next cherub rudder.