Rudder Found!!! Thank you, All! & How it broke!

Posted By: Linda Cherry
Date: 7/1/07 8:53a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Broken rudder question (Bob Frak)

Ahoy, Santana Sailors, Thank you, All, for your help, advice and leads to help me repair, rebuild and replace my broken rudder! My replacement rudder is in the mail! (So's my check.) Alan from Ann Arbor has mailed his spare rudder to me, (formerly Rudy's rudder). It proved to be my best option for replacing it without waiting 3 more weeks for a new Ida rudder. For those of you who have asked how I broke my rudder...I'll humbly explain in hopes of saving you the heartache and humiliation: First break: 2006 I was pulling my boat out with some help on the dock...with some distractions I forgot to tie up my rudder. When I was pulling someone saw it and yelled. I stopped quickly but my car rolled back just a bit before I got the emergency brake on. With the rudder dragging the short reverse movement twisted it and bent with a jagged break below the alum. cheeks. A sailor friend took it to try to rebuild it as an experimnet... He did it with some steel rods and two kinds of epoxy and painted it...it looked like new! MY LESSON LEARNED: I must do FOUR things when launching and especially retrieving...FOUR! and I count them... I pull my plugs (2), tie up centerboard(3) and rudder(4)....FOUR!!! FOUR!!! No matter what...I do FOUR things... Second break: 2007 I was finally getting to sail for the first time this year...I took a few friends with me and some students who just finished our Adult Sail Camp. We sailed away from the dock but got stuck running aground, I pulled the center board and the rudder was stuck! I had a hard time getting it up. Our lake is pretty low right now and we got stuck a few more times trying to get out of the harbor. I had the students at the tiller at first (thought I'd let them have a thrill!...yeah, right!) and then a veteran and champion Lightning sailor tried to get us out...After a few more circles he said, "Linda, I can't steer this, why don't you come and try." I did...I couldn't steer either...we kept tacking and jibing and tacking and jibing...and couldn't get the boat to move...we also got stuck a few more times while spinning around. I tried to check the rudder and it looked funny...(we have muddy water, so it wasn't too clear.) I pulled it up and it wasn't there!!! Aha! we now knew our problem but meanwhile we were being blown into the riprap...one veteran onboard jumped onto the riprap and held us off...Bless him! I was getting my motor going by this time but he saved Sweet Cherryacht from further harm! We took our Race Committee Boat out and found the missing lower rudder piece. Interesting to note: Denny fixed the rudder and it didn't break where he fixed it...I can't see the steel rods he put in at the break...With all that stress...it broke ABOVE his repair...I told him he should go into the rudder repair business! MY LESSONS LEARNED THIS TIME: Check the water level, be extra cautious when low. I had seven people onboard..all excited to go out and play on the water!...I believe this raised our water line and increased our draw, making the water even lower or waterline higher (know what I mean?). I should only motor out of the harbor with the water level so low and keep my centerboard down only half way and the rudder up maybe half way...or just use the motor to steer. (I was surprised at how well I could steer with the motor and no rudder and the centerboard retracted!) I should also hook up my depth meter soon and turn it on, maybe! I already purchased (after searching this forum for rudder info) and received my new Auto-Release Racing Mini Clam Cleat CL257 to install on my rudder...One of you wrote about it on this forum last year. This will allow my rudder to kick up on it's own when under too much load. I promise to install it before launching. I hope this helps you and answers your questions. I don't believe it was a weak or defective rudder...just the loose nut on the tiller! Red skies at night, Linda Cherry Sweet Cherryacht smoothsailn@sbcglobal.net