Roundup mitigation plan

Posted By: Eric J Mac 26D
Date: 6/16/08 9:44a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: I'm a firm believer... (link) (Ramblin' Rod - Mac 26D - SeaQuell - Georgian Bay.)

Chris, first off, can you explain the conditions that broke your rudder and if it can be avoided (expect you will say ensure rudder is not kicked back, but want to be sure)? Thank you all for the input -seems that some of you came out of the "weeds" who haven't posted in a while -great. I will assume that my slack and increased weatherhelm were causing extra torsion in the castle that delayed my correction to the gusts and required extra energy to overcome the twist. Will also assume the design of the boat causes more load than normal to shift to the rudder under gusts. I still don't like the fact that I was still rounding up given that I was countering the weather helm and had the stays already appearing to set the mast forward. So, my plan is to 1) Mount a cam cleat on the castle to ensure the rudder stays down fully. I am not sure if some stretch in the line is good to preload or not but in any case will ensure no kickback of the rudder. The full Idasailor assembly appears particularly good in this case, but already went down the partial retrofit path with just the rudder. 2) I will buy the Idasailor stiffening plate, just as insurance. 3) I will experiment with extreme forward rake, and will actually measure it this time. It does seem the large daggerboard could be put to better use by taking more work off the rudder. 4) I will use a bigger bolt in the tiller -I think the holes even in the side plates are bigger than the bolt. 5) Will consider a nice stiff new tiller (further sunk into the path of dependence on the stock castle though). Idasailor just raised their prices -Dohh! I was otherwise quite happy with the 26D performance at BEER and therefore I put my beloved and superb-sailing Holder 20 up for sail assuming this problem and be largely solved. I still want to cry seeing the Holder go, even though I need the Mac space to bribe my family to go sailing with me. The Holder did address the mid-life sailing crisis much like buying a Corvette. Don't let anyone tell you the happiest 2 days in a sailor's life are always buying and selling his boat (though I admit this is most often true).