You tube F14 cat sailing


Darryl, the pics show some sexy looking kick up rudders on some/earlier? f14's as well as the t-foil rudders.
notice that the t-foil rudders are not kick up but have their own special up/down carbon sleeves
is that because the upward forces they generate don't work well with the typical kickup system, or are you just trying to keep the t-foils at the lowest drag angle all the time. i can imagine that if the rudders were put up or down the usual way the t-foils would act as huge brakes....

I think you answered you own question, plus I think you would break something while
kicking
the rudders up - unless you are not moving. <img src=
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Darryl, the pics show some sexy looking kick up rudders on some/earlier? F14’s as well as the t-foil rudders.
Notice that the t-foil rudders are not kick up but have their own special up/down carbon sleeves
Is that because the upward forces they generate don't work well with the typical kick up system, or are you just trying to keep the t-foils at the lowest drag angle all the time? I can imagine that if the rudders were put up or down the usual way the t-foils would act as huge brakes....
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The kick up system we made first and when we fitted the T foils it seemed a better idea to be able to raise and lower the T foils always at the same angle of attack to the direction of the boat and not, as you say, create a braking effect if they were to kick up. (I have tried them with a kick up system (the T foils) and they do work well and the braking effect was of no great inconvenience except if I tried to sail off the beach with the rudders partly swung up).
I thought that you were looking at your own T foil system? (or was that someone else?)
Your absolutely correct
Jeffs
and at most times when the rudders “kick up” you are not really concerned about your sailing speed as it’s mostly about saving your rudders from breakage from hitting something “solid”. Even if they kick up from dragging large amounts of weed, you still want them up to get that weed off of them. As I said the only time that having T foils on “kick up” rudders is a real “pain” is when you have to sail out off the beach with them half way up/down, then there is a lot of drag that can be problematic.
With the T foils in “cassette” type stocks everything works great all the time, with the possible exception of hitting something really solid with them down – but then we have used them now for some three plus seasons and never broken any while sailing (and they have hit bottom rather hard a few times)
There's a Farrier trimaran with pull-up rudders in a cassette. Normally you pull them straight up manually, but if you hit something the whole cassette kicks up, saving the rudders. That sounds like the ideal setup to me! Too bad it won't work for daggerboards! Could be nice on the F14, but maybe it would put too much weight on the transom?
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There's a Farrier trimaran with pull-up rudders in a cassette. Normally you pull them straight up manually, but if you hit something the whole cassette kicks up, saving the rudders. That sounds like the ideal set-up to me! Too bad it won't work for daggerboards! Could be nice on the F14, but maybe it would put too much weight on the transom? (End quote)
There is a 14’ cat (paper tiger) here that has/had such a “kick up” cassette rudder stock system, and we have looked at that system but then decided to keep it as simple as possible. We have had no problems so far with this cassette system even without any kick up ability.
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