Duh
That is why I put quotation marks around balance when I was speaking to
rudder balance., to indicate a different concept.
Rudder balance has a dramatic affect on how light or heavy the helm is,
which was the original question.


"Dave" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 23 Sep 2005 17:45:08 -0400, "Garland Gray II"
said:

Agreed, and also depends on how well the boat is balanced.

A spade rudder can be "balanced " itself, which can lighten the helm
considerably, as opposed to a rudder hinged to the trailing edge of the
keel.

Someone on the CS mailing list recently pointed out that boat balance and
rudder balance are two different things entirely. Boat balance is
primarily
determined by the distance between the center of effort of the wind and
the
center of lateral resistance. A change in the rudder balance will only
affect boat balanced marginally, if at all.

Dave