MBounds wrote:
the only true way to tell is to weigh them. EPOs are very light - about half the weight of Lexan or race rudders.
What would you say the weight of a typical EPO blade is, vs a race rudder?
My EPO's are definitely a lot lighter (and stiffer) than the lexan rudders that came on the boat, but I wonder how much weight I added when I resurfaced them. I had to coat them and sand them down about 4 times after I bought them (per Surf City's video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNwMgX48uwQ), the glass was all exposed on one side of each blade (they had clearly been left in the sun at some point, then spray painted over to look like new... but in reality it was a very poor prep job and the paint peeled almost immediately after use).
If I had to guess off of the top of my head based on memory, I'd say that my lexan rudders are 8-10 lbs each, whereas the EPO's are probably in the 4-6 lbs range.
Of course, that doesn't help someone buying based on pictures online. But any fiberglass rudder is going to be better than the old style plastic. I imagine that the current fiberglass rudders and old race rudders had a similar foil shape to the EPO's, but just weigh a bit more. With the most important characteristics of the rudders being #1 shape and #2 stiffness, it's nice to have lightweight rudders, but like Matt Miller said, any glass rudder is a big improvement.
black4est, to clarify the difference a bit better, the fiberglass rudders have a somewhat thicker foil shape, which is more effective at providing lift and doesn't stall as easily, and they stall at a higher angle of attack than the thinner plastic rudders. The fiberglass rudders are also stiffer, and don't bend or flex nearly as much when under load, which also provides a lot more lift/turning force. It essentially just gives you much better control over your boat. But again, if the rudders move around a lot because of sloppy rudder posts/gudgeons/castings/bolt holes/tiller connections/etc, you lose some of that control. Also, don't worry about the rudder bolt holes being wrong for your boat/castings, just fill them with epoxy and use the template to drill new holes:
https://static.hobiecat.com/digital_ass ... 1502281736