Hey Gang,
This weekend I had yet another new mishap on my boat. This time I broke my rudder while under sail. (I tried to attach a couple of pics but I keep getting the message that they are too large. Any help here?) It was perfect sailing conditions n my home lake, 10-12, a really great wind speed. We had a really strong puff, which we saw and were ready for when it arrived. I was spilling air in the main and the boat was handling all very well. Then the boat turned up hard into the wind. It was then I realized I had no control of the boat and I was without a rudder. I am so happy this happened on my home lake AND without my girlfriend on board. We were able to get the sails down and recover the broken rudder so that it doesn't ruin someone's day. I am grateful to have my outboard to get us back to the slip.
After doing a little digging, I found this statement on the Ruffer Craft site:
"Original rudders frequently fail at the waterline and rarely fail during good conditions. So, do a thorough inspection of your original equipment rudder frequently...:
I encourage all of you to inspect your rudder. This is something that could fail at the worse possible time.
My question to the community is: Should I pay the big boat bucks for a new rudder, like a Rudder Craft or should I shop for a used rudder? I don't know enough to know if the Rudder Craft rudder is worth the expense. It would be nice to have a kick-up rudder, but almost a $1K?
Thanks,
Kevin
This weekend I had yet another new mishap on my boat. This time I broke my rudder while under sail. (I tried to attach a couple of pics but I keep getting the message that they are too large. Any help here?) It was perfect sailing conditions n my home lake, 10-12, a really great wind speed. We had a really strong puff, which we saw and were ready for when it arrived. I was spilling air in the main and the boat was handling all very well. Then the boat turned up hard into the wind. It was then I realized I had no control of the boat and I was without a rudder. I am so happy this happened on my home lake AND without my girlfriend on board. We were able to get the sails down and recover the broken rudder so that it doesn't ruin someone's day. I am grateful to have my outboard to get us back to the slip.
After doing a little digging, I found this statement on the Ruffer Craft site:
"Original rudders frequently fail at the waterline and rarely fail during good conditions. So, do a thorough inspection of your original equipment rudder frequently...:
I encourage all of you to inspect your rudder. This is something that could fail at the worse possible time.
My question to the community is: Should I pay the big boat bucks for a new rudder, like a Rudder Craft or should I shop for a used rudder? I don't know enough to know if the Rudder Craft rudder is worth the expense. It would be nice to have a kick-up rudder, but almost a $1K?
Thanks,
Kevin