Emilia on the move

Emilia is currently on a weekend trip in the lake Mälaren and since she has now sailed a whole season with her new rudder (Jefa RUD34) I think it is safe for me to evaluate the overwhelming difference to the original rudder. When reading this, bear in mind that my boat is steered with a tiller.


Gusty winds on the lake Mälaren. The main sail is trimmed to the much lighter winds just moments before.

I mainly had two expectations on the new rudder and they were:

1. I wanted the weird feeling in the tiller whereby it would let you push it away from you rather pull it towards you when sitting on the wheather side with a wheather helm. The rudder would thereby act as if it was overbalanced the way it does when you are going to reverse. My boat would bear off if I let go of the tiller instead of going into the wind. This weird feeling is completely gone!

2.I had heard from others that the boat would not broach as easily with the Jefa rudder and I found that to be absolutely correct! I had taught myself and others on my boat not to fight a broach but to let it happen and then steer back to the original course as soon as you feel the tiller being lighter. With the new rudder, much to my own surprise and the other crew, you can now actually fight a broach successfully. It gives me that "wow" feeling.

3.I hoped that the new rudder would make it it less heavy to steer under engine. I usually let the autopilot steer in those situations. I can happily report that is a much greater joy to steer the boat under engine with the new rudder.

Now, there are two added expectations that I never had but the rudder fullfilled anyway:

4. My boat sails faster! It is no real wonder considering that the behaviour of my original rudder made it act as a break.

5. The complete change of the tiller feeling suddenly let me use the tiller as a means to evaluate the sail trim and make changes accordingly in a way I have never been able to do before. Now I can sail my boat even more like a dinghy than I used to.

Replacing the original rudder has been by far the best upgrade to my boat that I have made. Much more so than actually getting new sails, which I did the year before.

Johan


A safe harbour where I found time to write this post.

Edited by Johan Hackman - 16 October 2022 at 09:28

That's amazing Johan. A remarkably successful outcome. YoForgive me - you may have stated this previously - is the new rudder different in area or shape/profile (or both) to the original? 

Richard M wrote: Forgive me - you may have stated this previously - is the new rudder different in area or shape/profile (or both) to the original?  You mention replacing your sails last year - may I ask what type of sails you now have?

The new rudder is indeed a bit different in area but the most important thing is the profile. Jefa makes rudders with NACA profiles but the original rudder, still in my garden, has a shape that there cannot be a scientific description for. When I have taken a closer look at it all I can say - it looks horrible.

I went for dacron sails and got a new main and a new selftacking jib with vertical battens - and asked the sail maker to throw a genoa into the deal! I had never sailed my boat with a genoa before and it was an exciting experience to do so after all the years I had only sailed with the selftacker.

Johan


The two rudders side by side.

Edited by Johan Hackman - 31 October 2022 at 12:53

This year will see Emilia sail in the Archipelago of Stockholm during the autumn holidays which is this week. We'll see how many days it will be. The weather forecast is all too light winds to make a round-trip so we might just sail in the local area. I am myself looking forward to spend time in my bunk reading so long distances is not a priority for me.

The first day was spent at the home berth so that the batteries and the battery charger could be replaced. It was a day´s work and all the crew, cats and the dog included, enjoyed a well deserved dinner.



The next the day we went through the lock and realised we were lucky that someone had prerequested a bridge opening at the time. Otherwise we would have had to wait for five hours!

We hoisted the sails and sailed for a bit. Then the wind died and we had to motor. When we passed the place I live we made a short stop to walk to my house to pick up the fish soup that I had left in the fridge. What you don't have in your head you will have to have in your feet! (If that Swedish saying means anything in English I don't know.)



The harbour for the night was a popular natural harbour that was practically empty apart from a boat that we believe is abandoned. You see them along the shores in the city so if it really is one of the abondoned ones it is tragic to see it here.

Johan

PS. The boat in the picture is not the abondoned one!

Richard, I have had AGM batteries on my boat since 2008 and it was a set of those I had to replace. Sadly, this is the second time they died after a mere three years of use. This time I was also adviced to replace the charger and to rewire the cables. I have not yet considered to change to Lithium.

As usual, this forum was of great help and this thread is about my battery problem: https://www.myhanse.com/agm-battery-problem_topic13707.html and this one is about the wiring in particular: https://myhanse.com/topic13724_post113170.html#113170. I am leaving those links here as reference for anyone interested.

I agree that abandoned boats is a potential environmental issue. Many of them that are left in my area could be great boats if only the were taken care of. The one we saw reminds me of the boat I had before Emilia and which gave me a lot of fun.

Johan



Edited by Johan Hackman - 31 October 2022 at 15:54