rudder catches marsh grass

[dannyb9]

the rudder on my 68 ds1 catches marsh grass whether retracted or not because of the shape of the leading edge. i am considering cutting a triangle off the top front leading edge so that grass wont get hooked on the blade when its retracted. is the rudder solid 'glass? are there other considerations? suggestions?
thanks, dan in port royal

[Red Ron]

Hi dannyb9
I don’t know how much you plan to cut off your rudder, the rudder and keel balance the boat if you change the rudder size the boat may not sail correctly .Is there any way to avoided the grass where you sail.

[dannyb9]

heres a pic of the rudder before i cut it. http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2346 ... t=outdoors.
you can see the pencilled line that i cut on the lower left corner of the rudder blade. the area removed was about 4 sq in. the other photos in the album show the marsh. as you can see, 'avoiding the grass' is not an option

[Red Ron]

Cutting the corner off is ok, happy sailing

[GreenLake]

@dannyb9
Interesting place!

The purpose of that "corner" appears to be to serve as a stop that prevents the rudder from tiltingforward. Unless you sail backwards a lot, I'd tend to agree with "Red Ron".