I drew out a 17” x 6” rudder on my sheet of aluminum and cut it out with a jigsaw.
The bracket was made from 1”x1/4” aluminum bar that I bent by hand with a propane torch.
I drilled the mounting holes and smoothed the edges of all my cuts with a file.
Primed and painted all my aluminum pieces and bolted them onto the kayak.
Rudder top view
Rudder turned
I ran the control lines inside the yak and attached them to the foot pegs.
I used a lock nut to bolt the rudder on so it can stay loose and move up and down.
I attached a spring to the bottom of the rudder.
The rudder in the water
I took it out to Cedar Key Sunday. I'm glad I had it, we had 15-20 mph winds almost all day. Its nice being able to go straight in a cross wind. This was a simple build that took around 3 hours to make.
Comments
I have a Pelican Pursuit 12 foot that tracks hard to the right, and am about to fashion a rear "skeg" or fixed rudder to trim me straight. I am wrestling with how large, how deep, etc. I'll probably start with a ridgid license plate, mounted "portrait", and begin trimming it down until I go too far, and it becomes ineffective. Yours is the best done that I've found, by the way.