I personally think the spade rudders are a mistake. A little bit of heeling will pull the luff rudder out and force all steering on the single leeward rudder that will vent very easily because its area is so close to the surface. But it gets better when the boat puts its bows in a little. Now the leeward rudder is easily lifted clear of the water thus making the boat loose all steering.

Basically each time when you need steerage the most, the boat takes away increasingly large portions of it.

After having done the numbers I found that a 0.500 mtr deep rudder (less then 2 feet) is enough for a boat of this size. I think kids can easily stand in water that is just over 0.500 mtr deep, there is no need to allow the boat to be sailed in water less deep then that. But more importantly you don't want them to sail the boat in deep less deep that that. Again, when they put their bows down they will quickly reach to 0.5 mtr depth. And you don't want them to hit bottom with theur bows during a dive as that will most definately have them pitchpole or capsize violantly.

US demographic data show that kids (both male/female) over 6 years of age are AT LEAST 1.00 meter tall already. Kids of 12 years are already over 1.40 mtr. As such they can stand and survive in water no deeper then 0.75 mtr (6+ years) or 1.00 mtr (21+years). As such I see absolutely no need to NOT have plain rudders that stick only 0.5 mtr below the water surface. This negates the need for any spade rudders.

Indeed they tried this setup (spade rudders protected by the skegs) on the Funboat and the reviews were devasting.

Wouter