Success

I completed the rudder modification on Thursday. We took the boat out today to try it out. It was an interesting day. We backed out of our slip and promptly ran aground. I had to give her a lot of throttle to get ungrounded. Once we got off and were moving we had a vibration and the boat did not steer very well. My first thought was the rudder mod was to blame. Then I thought maybe we have a bunch of mud on the prop and rudder from the grounding. Once we got out of the little bay here we anchored and I went in the water to look at things. I was surprised to find some carpet wound up around the prop. It took a couple of dives to get the prop cleaned off. We took off again and the difference in the way the boat handled was amazing. She is very responsive now. I was doing tight donuts around a marker post by the ICW channel. People probably thought I was drunk or crazy. I can now turn the boat around in less the two boat lengths. When we returned to our slip I was able to just turn right in. Before I would have to stop and back up in order to get turned enough to get in.

Side view of rudder extension.

Top view.

Carpet that was wrapped around the prop.

If you look at the water you can see how tight we were turning.