I've got a trailerable boat so if the rudder gets stuck hard over, I can flip the rudder up (unless it's stuck down for some other reason). If it happens to be stuck down, maybe it's worth an attempt with the mainsheet to snap that puppy off? Mine is made of fiberglass and a replacement is about $150.
Emergancy Tiller
- Thread starter Don Guillette
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I've got a trailerable boat so if the rudder gets stuck hard over, I can flip the rudder up (unless it's stuck down for some other reason). If it happens to be stuck down, maybe it's worth an attempt with the mainsheet to snap that puppy off? Mine is made of fiberglass and a replacement is about $150.
Mine's not a kick up but could easily be removed (if not quickly). I question how well a fin keel will steer under sails alone with out some kind of rudder though. Seems like you need something back there to encourage the boat to track straight and not just spin around the keel.
I almost got to try that out a couple summers ago - I lost my balance during a tack and sat on the tiller. It went crunch and split at one of the bolts. Luckily it didn't completely snap and I was able to get us back to the dock. Pretty nervous feeling sailing with a wobbly tiller though.
Years ago, when we decided to get back into sailing because we were sick of our children bring our power boat back in pieces, the first sail boat we purchased was a beautiful Mac22 at Lake Havasu, AZ.
Like most guys, I didn't pay much attention to the info the previous owner was providing. I knew it all -- sound familiar!! The previous owner pushed us off from the beach and I dropped the rudder down. A wave came along and the rudder popped off. I forgot to put in the holding pin!! At the same time, my wife let down the keel, which promptly stuck in the sandy bottom. So much for the first day.
It got worse on the second day. We were sailing downwind toward the channel that runs under London Bridge. I didn't want to sail into the channel so we decided to turn up wind because the previous owner told me to turn into the wind before I dropped the mainsail. As soon as we did the boat obviously took off and heeled over. We didn't like that so we turned downwind to think it over. Like insanity, where you do the same thing over again hoping for a different outcome, we tried it again -- same thing happened. This time I just dropped the main and we had sail all over the deck but the boat was under control.
I knew I needed sailing lessons, which I signed up for as soon as I returned to So Ca, and for the rest of the week we just motored around the lake. It was pretty nice sitting in the cockpit with the tiller in my hand. I couldn't wait until I could figure out sail trim and really sail the boat but it took a bit of time and effort before that time came.
Like most guys, I didn't pay much attention to the info the previous owner was providing. I knew it all -- sound familiar!! The previous owner pushed us off from the beach and I dropped the rudder down. A wave came along and the rudder popped off. I forgot to put in the holding pin!! At the same time, my wife let down the keel, which promptly stuck in the sandy bottom. So much for the first day.
It got worse on the second day. We were sailing downwind toward the channel that runs under London Bridge. I didn't want to sail into the channel so we decided to turn up wind because the previous owner told me to turn into the wind before I dropped the mainsail. As soon as we did the boat obviously took off and heeled over. We didn't like that so we turned downwind to think it over. Like insanity, where you do the same thing over again hoping for a different outcome, we tried it again -- same thing happened. This time I just dropped the main and we had sail all over the deck but the boat was under control.
I knew I needed sailing lessons, which I signed up for as soon as I returned to So Ca, and for the rest of the week we just motored around the lake. It was pretty nice sitting in the cockpit with the tiller in my hand. I couldn't wait until I could figure out sail trim and really sail the boat but it took a bit of time and effort before that time came.
Been there, done that! We were having a blast sailing downwind in our Capri 16.5 one day. It took us 3 tries to get turned back upwind; it almost took 4 tries because we were laughing hysterically by the 3rd try. Not sure it was so much inexperience as failure to synchronize our timing in a boat that really requires you both on the high side when the wind is up.- Status