Originally posted by John Ritger:
OK everyone, research has paid off! I have had several long conversations with a principal of Idasailor, a manufacturer of rudders for sailboats. They have a design staff and engineers, do their own manufacturing and are versed in many types of construction. They are the builders of the carbon rudders for the Columbia 30 sportboat and many others.
For what little it's worth, there's a brand new Columbia 30 in Chicago whose rudder failed this year. It fractured just below the rudder cassette. It was likely a design flaw, and not a manufacturing problem.
