On Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:17:25 -0600, "KLC Lewis"
wrote:


"Richard Casady" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:16:17 -0600, "KLC Lewis"
wrote:

A water-filled rudder? That's a new one on me. I saw an ad once for a
water-filled anchor that was just the cat's pajamas. Empty it out, it's
really light. Fill it up, it gets really heavy. Fill it with fresh water
and
you have an extra supply of drinking water to boot.

The weight of water in water is nothing. In other words the thing will
be so bulky that its bouyancy will result in nearly no effective
weight. Anchors need to be dense as well as heavy, the weight in the
water is all that counts.

Casady

Uh, yeah. That's a given, I think.

Most of the foam filled "spade" rudders typical on modern sail boats
will either float when new or sink very slowly. This was forcibly
brought home to me when I tore off the lower half of my rudder on a
coral head and had to build a new one. The rudder is built on a 3 inch
thick wall stainless tube stock with approximately 2 square feet of
0.250" stainless plate welded to it. The foam core is about 2.5 X 3.5
feet in area and, say 4 " thick at the thickest. The approximate
dimensions of the original.

When we went to install the rudder I dove in to align the rudder stock
and guide it into the rudder bearing only to find that the damned
thing floated. We were finally able to install it by passing a line
tied to the rudder stock through the bearing in such a manner that the
rudder stock was pulled up to the bearing and all I had to do was
push it straight which I was able to do from the surface.

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)