Broke my C-22 rudder

[Randy K]

Thought I'd pass on my story as it might be of some help to others. When I brought our 1986 C-22 I noted that it had a crack in the back of the rudder. Over the winter I "repaired" it with MarineTex. It seemed fine so far this season. Well last night sailing against a strong wind the rudder snapped in two just below the lower pintle. After a wild couple of minutes lowering the sails and getting the ob going we managed to pick up the 3' piece of rudder (it was floating) and motor on back to the slip. Ordered a new one from Catalina Direct today. They told me the new ones are foam inside since the wood ones kept getting wet and rotten. No kidding! Anyway if you suspect your rudder has gotten water inside be careful. Randy

 

[Aldo]

Did you have a shear pin on it?

Randy: Just out of curiosity, did you have a shear pin in the rudder to keep it from kicking up? (I'm assuming that you had a kick-up rudder). I know that a lot of people believe that the little dimple that Catalina put into the rudder can keep it down, but I put absolutely zero faith in that ever happening. I have seen many C-22s that the rudder rotates back a little. This increases the forces on the tiller tremendously, and therefore must also be increasing the forces on the rudder too. I just use a little ~1/8 diameter nylon pin that I goes through the 2 side plates to the rudder, and through the rudder itself. If the rudder ever hits the bottom it will shear the pin, but otherwise, the rudder stays down. Aldo

 

[Randy K]

It was not a kick-up rudder

The rudder was not a kick-up. I have a fixed fin keel. Hopefully the replacement rudder will arrive today and I can get back to sailing!