Rudder placement

[Beau Parsons]

So I have a question I am working on finishing my sport 40 Wood Whiplash, does it make a difference rather the rudder is placed on the right or left? from Blazer marine is specifies per the instruction on the left, I wanted to know if there is any reason that it cant be placed on the right? Any help would be greatly apreciated.

Thanks Beau

 

[El Zorro]

From the little experience I have running hydros, I would put the rudder on your Sport 40 on the left. If the manufacturer says to put it on the left, that's where it needs to go. Who knows better than the one that designed and tested the boat? The 2 Sport 40 boats I have run both have the rudder on the left and both boats corner extremely well. I have always heard that if the rudder is mounted on the left of the transom that it will "plant" the right sponson on the water in the corners. Just the opposite if the rudder is on the right side of the transom. I asked a crew guy at an Inboard boat race ( full size hydros ) why the rudder was on a particular side of the boat and he looked at me like it was a trick question ( he didn't know ). I'm sure there are those on this site who can give you a better answer than I can, but this is just what I know from my experience with hydros.

Dick Tyndall

 

[Beau Parsons]

Dick,

Thanks for you input, I was curious because I notcied that Mike at ML Boatworks was putting his on the right on his new sport boats so I thought I would ask everyones opinion before I drill the holes and mount the rudder on mine.

Thanks Beau

 

[anthony_marquart]

I certainly will not argue with dick. But in my reading I have found that the placement of the rudder on the left does indeed help plant the right sponson. This was more important before we had better turn fin designs that we have now. The curved tf pulls the sponson and it may not matter as much these days. I have the rudder on right on my sp40 and it handles very well This may not be the same for all boats. I would like to know more about the design traits of a hull that would impact the rudder placement

 

[Samuel Hagan JR]

I agree with Dick. But my rudder is on the right to keep the left sponson planted down. The Blazer Turn fin is doing a great job keeping the right sponson down.

 

[Ray Sametz]

One other thing to consider is your pulling the push rod to turn right. OMHO

Duhhhhh right not left.

 

[El Zorro]

I should have mentioned that my first Sport 40 was a Phil Thomas boat and the one I ran at Hobart last year was an ML Boatworks GP400. With the rudder on the left side of the transom the servo is pulling to make the boat go to the right. Regardless, you need a stiff control rod to make things work like they should and a servo with at least 150 inch ounces of torque. You not only need the torque to move the rudder to turn the boat, but you need the torque to straighten the rudder coming out of the turn. A carbon fiber rod works well in this situation, also. Don't guess I need to say what turn fin I'm using...........

Dick Tyndall

 

[Samuel Hagan JR]

It's amazing how much the carbon fiber rod helps.

 

[Larry Roberts]

I took the advice from John Finch to move my rudder to the right on my SP 40, it improved the handling so much it's now a pleasure to drive. Before it would go airborne with any left turn input

 

[anthony_marquart]

what hull is that? I like the flats and vertical section on the outside of the tub..

 

[Larry Roberts]

I was told its a Scorpion , it's rather old

 

[John Finch]

Hey Larry. Are you going to have an electric 1/8th scale ready for the Fort Richie race?

John

 

[Larry Roberts]

Not sure

 

[Beau Parsons]

Well I have two Wood WHips so Im going to setup one boat with the rudder on the left and on the right and see what happens. Thanks for the help fellas.

Beau

 

[David Swisher]

I think the right side helps the boat turn better,but boats naturally want to turn right from prop thrust and turn fin drag,I've noticed the rudder on left will help the boat track straighter in the straightaways but the hull corners better with the turn fin and rudder on the same side,I've had both and this is my findings!

 

[TimothyJones]

My super sport is on the starboard side. Thats the way i recieved it.

It turns ok but plants hard in the turn. Kinda oversteers. But i ran someone elses and turned on a rail, same setup it looked.

Same boats never seem to like the same thing. CG, micro-adjustments,props,balance all make a difference. Thats the fun of it.

Who loves this hobby, I do !!!!!