I have a MacGregor 21 with a solid rudder and I sail in shallow water, so I'm in the process of building a kick up rudder. My question is, do you folks use cotter pins in the pintles to lock your solid rudders into place or do you just drop the rudder in and let gravity do the work? I want to sail this weekend and I want to be able to yank my rudder out if I run aground, but I don't want to lose my rudder! When I get my kick up done, this will not be a concern any more. (Note: I'm a new sailor and I sail in the Indian River Lagoon in Florida. The channel is deep, but getting out of the channel can get you into water that is 2 or 3 feet deep in seconds.)
A few fixed rudder questions.
- Thread starter Chuck_FLA
- Start date
I've seen a rudder without a pin come loose once or twice. Rare but it did happen on my foam rudder. You can tie a line or bungee to keep your rudder in its gudgeon as a temporary measure. I would recommend a safety line to keep your rudder from floating away in the unlikely event that it does come off.
When previously using a solid rudder i always pinned it to make sure it would not fall off when launched. Then came the day when I decided to park on an island for an overnight and found out I had parked at high tide when wanting to leave the next morning at low tide. The attempt to dig myself out of the sand was oarrible with my pitiful paddle and had to wait till near noon.
My fear is that if I run into the shallows, which would be easy to do, there is no 'give' in my rudder and either my rudder will break or it will rip a hole in the transom. I'm not sure which would give first! Building the kick up rudder should be pretty easy. I see new ones that can be purchased, but they cost more than my entire boat and trailer cost
I think the gudgeon will rip out prior to the rudder blade breaking - probably the lower gudgeon . This isn't a test I would like to conduct!
In my corner of the lagoon, except for the spill areas, the water changes depth fairly slowly. When I hear the centerboard dragging over the bottom I release it and do the same for the rudder. Your rudder is supposed to be shorter than the centerboard to protect the rudder. In some designs it is not. But, the drama of grounding isn't as bad as you are imagining.
In your newly rebuilt rudder how to do plan to raise and lower the blade? Typically line is used threaded into holes in the blade for that. If that's what you plan to do a jam cleat works nicely to hold the down line. It will be easy to release (some cases too easy) and puts some flexibility to the system which serves to put some give into the system.
In my corner of the lagoon, except for the spill areas, the water changes depth fairly slowly. When I hear the centerboard dragging over the bottom I release it and do the same for the rudder. Your rudder is supposed to be shorter than the centerboard to protect the rudder. In some designs it is not. But, the drama of grounding isn't as bad as you are imagining.
In your newly rebuilt rudder how to do plan to raise and lower the blade? Typically line is used threaded into holes in the blade for that. If that's what you plan to do a jam cleat works nicely to hold the down line. It will be easy to release (some cases too easy) and puts some flexibility to the system which serves to put some give into the system.