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A 100-Year Rudder

With the Pacific Cup, Singlehanded TransPac and Vic-Maui races all going on at the same time, the focus of ‘Lectronic has been acutely focused on offshore racing lately. Meanwhile, plenty of other notable nautical stories have been quietly taking place with little fanfare. 

Workers begin to assemble the Turner’s new rudder at the Sausalito build site. 

© 2016 Woody Skoriak

A case in point was the installation of the ultra-beefy rudder into the Matthew Turner tall ship, which is currently being built in Sausalito, largely by skilled volunteers. 

Multiple laminations plus steel rods will make it plenty strong.  

© Woody Skoriak

It’s often said that the Turner should last at least 100 years. And judging by the way her rudder was constructed, it will probably endure that long as well. According to lead shipwright Franz Baichl, she is built from, "all solid oak planks, laminated together with a cold-molded skin, then three layers of 15-oz fiberglass cloth all around it."

Construction volunteer Jitendra Darling coaxes the top of the 2,500-lb, solid bronze rudder’s 15.5-foot shaft into its tube.

© 2016 Woody Skoriak

For more on the project, including how you can get involved, see this link.

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Sugarloaf Mountain towers majestically above Guanabara Bay, site of this month’s Olympic sailing.
Because some Pacific Cup entries were still finishing last week as we went to press with the August issue of Latitude 38, it was a high-stress scramble for us to put together the race overview that appears within the magazine.