RE: Boothbay Oyster boat
Umi,
Warning! Don't get me started on Becker rudders. They are fascinating! I've added a Becker to almost every (recent) boat I've built. Sometimes they don't stay too long, but more because I don't do a very good job of it, rather than them not being sort of benificial, sort of. The one thing I've concluded is that if the Becker's pivot pin is more than 2/3rds of the length of the rudder from the rudder's pivot point, you've got more of a water-brake than usable rudder. Unless you are very 'frugal' with steering inputs. Bet there's some kind'a geometric reason for that distance between pivot points, but I'm too lazy to figure it out.
- 'Doc
PS - 'Fascinated' is sort of like 'easily amused'. Just takes some flashing lights, knobs to twist, or something like that to tie me up for days.
(Corrected this thing three times. Anymore misspelling and you'll just have to live with it.)