Sometimes the next step in the boat shop is a scary one. Here we have a nice new 6.5′ tall, 32 pound carbon fiber rudder, all faired out to spec shape and ready for paint.

BUT it’s not done – sitting on the workbench tonight all marked up for cutting out the trim tab section on the trailing edge, so the boat can be steered by the windvane up on the tower shown a couple weeks back. So with at least 50 hours of work and about a grand in materials I decided to sleep on it and take one more check of the measurements before cutting tomorrow. It’s so counter-intuitive to take a saw to a finished product, but the windvane company and the naval architect are all on board and eager to see how this thing works out.

Hopefully good photos will get to you this weekend.