Date: 1/3/2010
Name: Greg
email: upwind7@yahoo.com
subject:
illegal rudders


You are right, the ruddergate thing should never have happened. Anyone building rudders or serious about racing and a class member would know when an illegible drawing is used as an excuse to make an improved rudder a full inch beyond specs. The drawing in question has 3 hand printed tolerances drawn in and each looks different. The written description though clearly lists the range of 1 inch to 1.5 inches as tolerance. Even worse though is that class officers should have corrected this much sooner on the drawing. We haven't had enough effort from some class officers for a while. The new board should evaluate if any of our officers have served too long and are getting tired.

The SJ21 is an old design and has a good enough rudder. It doesn't need to be improved with a better foil shape to generate more lift and be more aerodynamic. There are many things such as the mast, keel and hull that can be modified to improve performance but then you'd have a new, modern boat. If you want the one design class racing then you just have to go with the boat as it is. If you even have the appearance of skippers modifying their boats to gain an advantage then that fleet will fade away. It appears that is the case in the Northwest region of our class.

As for having some info including the current handbook as a members only access, that was decided by a board to encourage free internet surfers from getting everything for nothing unless they paid their dues at least once. We need to pay our dues annually to support the countless hours of volunteer effort that built this class in the 1960's, 70's, etc.

There is nothing left to clarify about the rudders. They either measure in or they don't. It is unfortunate that some where built, but any rudder that doesn't measure in can't be allowed at class races. This has happened before in the Eastern region but it was dealt with by the chief measurer and the fleets. There is no grandfathering something brand new. If you allow improved rudders then will you allow my sails to be off by the same percentage; how about my keel or my mast height?

If Canyon Ferry wants to have a real North Americans then there should be the typical boat and sail measurements. Skippers won't want to drive the long distance if there are some with boat modifications there. The illegal rudders shouldn't have to be protested by skippers on the water; they should be dealt with before the regatta by the class measurer at registration. The measuring form is available for any regatta. Looks like it is really needed in your area.


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