Foss rudder story

I think almost everyone here who has interacted with Foss has been pretty happy with them ? Because of that I was surprised to come across a negative thread on the SSCA forum: http://tinyurl.com/89ekkh

An anomaly ?


-Sven

My only gripe with Foss is that they were unable to give me an accurate delivery time. They stated 3 weeks and it ended up being 6. Now I understand that this sort of thing common practice in the marine world as I have experienced it from other vendors as well. Unfortunately its the one thing that really ticks me off. Probably because running production facilities and knowing what my lead times were, down to the second, is what I made a career of in a former life. Old habits and expectations die hard, and thats why I sail, it takes the type A out of me if only temporarily. Other than that the Foss rebuild of my rudder was very nice. RT

If you are thinking about one for your 39 DON'T DO IT!

IF you are thinking of one for your 39b Don't do it.... The only rudder they will make for your boat makes the problems a lot worse than they currently are. The rudder Foss is selling is smaller in area than the original and does not steer the boat. Yes it has a better shape, but better shape cannot overcome 27% less rudder area on a rudder that was too small to begin with.

Their ability to get the job done right is also questionable in one case where the owner had to weld an extension onto the rudder stock after having told Foss the correct dimensions. We won't even talk about his having to fix the rudder due to the screws that the shipping crate was made from being so long they penetrated the rudder by 3".

If you need more data on why not to do the foss rudder for an e-39 contact me back channel.


Guy

Hi Guy,

Guy Stevens said:

IF you are thinking of one for your 39b Don't do it

Click to expand...

I had thought about it until deciding that a Maxprop or Variprop was the solution to the propwalk in reverse (thanks to the inputs here).

We still haven't experienced large following waves which I've been told might also be a challenge due to the IOR hull shape and narrow stern. That might be another reason for a larger rudder but we'll put that thought on hold until we see a reason to reconsider.

Thanks for the warning.



-Sven

Hi Sven, thought I would join you over here. I have been hit with just about everything, and I have no complaints about the rudder size, but I do get an enoying knock when at anchor. its worked for 30+ yrs why change it if it aint broke.

Hi Simon,

SimonV said:

Hi Sven, thought I would join you over here. I have been hit with just about everything, and I have no complaints about the rudder size, but I do get an enoying knock when at anchor. its worked for 30+ yrs why change it if it aint broke.

Click to expand...

Great to see you here !

For those of you who don't know Simon, he bought Pacifica from Greg and Melissa Davids around April of last year. His cruise back to Australia caused one of the longest threads I've ever seen on Sailnet: http://tinyurl.com/5ruqap

Simon, I was going to ask you if you had had any problems in following seas. Glad to get the answer before even asking, especially since it is the right answer

We haven't noticed any knocking but have not been at anchor yet.


-Sven