
[In Part 2 Colin examined decks, hulls, structural fittings and internal structure, now he continues with underwater appendages.]
Rudders
There will be a strong likelihood that most of the boats in our price and age bracket will have a spade rudder. Having lost one (and written about it extensively here) my feelings about them are naturally somewhat clouded, but there’s no way around the fact that there are an awful lot of boats out there with them fitted that otherwise might fit our bill, so let’s look at how and what we can do to minimise the inherent risks: