PART ONE:
Y'all might remember me saying one of my lifelines broke off effortlessly last week. Unusual maybe, but hey, they were old.
PART TWO:
So NOW, this week we went sailing up in the Florida panhandle, just ahead of all the rain and junk. It was a nice afternoon as we sailed a stone's throw off a public beach, waving and smiling to all the beachgoers. After a while, the beach ran out and we headed up and away from the shore. We had only gone an eighth of a mile or so, my wife was relaxing on the foredeck, when all of a sudden ... the farkin' RUDDER just FELL OFF THE farkin' BOAT!!
Right out of the clear blue, no warning, with a lee shore still uncomfortably close.
This is a four year old Ruddercraft I'm talking about, with 1/2" pintles, which has spent exactly sixty-two days on the water since we bought it.
I hollered "Holy SH*T!! We just lost our rudder!!" followed by "Drop the anchor! Drop the anchor!!" as I clutched the dangling tiller in a death grip, and started wrestling the assembly over the traveler and into the cockpit, while letting sheets go at the same time. I finally got it onboard, removed the tiller and got it all lashed down while Carlotta dealt with the sails. Once that was all done and a few deep breaths had been taken, I began closely inspecting things to see what on earth had just happened.
Long story short, the Ruddercraft's pintles had both broken. They are made from a piece of stainless angle with a 1/2" hole in the horizontal part, into which a 1/2" pin is inserted and welded at the top.That weld had failed. Looking over the transom I saw this:
And later I took this angle:
Close up view of the pintle pin, you can see where the weld went around its circumference:
PART THREE:
We obviously couldn't sail anymore, so we needed to head back to the marina, about five miles away (dead to windward, obviously). So we fired up the trusty Tohatsu, pulled up the anchor, and put our nose into the wind.
Thirty seconds later ... the engine abruptly spluttered, coughed, and died. (Insert a very long string of expletives here.)
We spent the next half hour alternately dropping the anchor, me getting the motor running again, pulling up the anchor, setting off, motor quitting. Lather, rinse and repeat. It would idle fine, it would even allow itself to be revved to high RPM's in neutral, but kept dying when put in gear and throttled up. I kept thinking clogged jet, or bad gas, although the (ethanol free) gas was pretty new, as is the tank itself. We were just about to finally call TowBoat US when I thought hey, we have a spare spark plug on board, why not try it? I have heard of spark plugs suddenly going bad without warning, although I have never seen it, or personally met anyone who had. But I'll be dipped in snot ... this time she fired up with a vengeance, and away we went. First time for everything ... times three in one week.
Back at the dock, I jumped in the truck and ran to a nearby hardware store, where I found some 1/2" stainless bolts and lock nuts. I drilled the broken weld residue out of the pintle brackets, held the rudder in place against the gudgeons, and dropped the bolts in. After taking a quick dip in the marina's pool, we were throwing off the docklines and heading back out to the gulf, where we arrived just in time to grill some steaks and red peppers before sunset, while anchored off a deserted sandy beach, listening to Beres Hammond and sipping some Appleton's rum. We ended the cruise the next morning due to weather, but at least we ended it on our terms, not equipment failure.
And for you guys who have Ruddercrafts ... watch those welds. Better yet, remove them and get them reinforced.
Y'all might remember me saying one of my lifelines broke off effortlessly last week. Unusual maybe, but hey, they were old.
PART TWO:
So NOW, this week we went sailing up in the Florida panhandle, just ahead of all the rain and junk. It was a nice afternoon as we sailed a stone's throw off a public beach, waving and smiling to all the beachgoers. After a while, the beach ran out and we headed up and away from the shore. We had only gone an eighth of a mile or so, my wife was relaxing on the foredeck, when all of a sudden ... the farkin' RUDDER just FELL OFF THE farkin' BOAT!!
Right out of the clear blue, no warning, with a lee shore still uncomfortably close.This is a four year old Ruddercraft I'm talking about, with 1/2" pintles, which has spent exactly sixty-two days on the water since we bought it.
I hollered "Holy SH*T!! We just lost our rudder!!" followed by "Drop the anchor! Drop the anchor!!" as I clutched the dangling tiller in a death grip, and started wrestling the assembly over the traveler and into the cockpit, while letting sheets go at the same time. I finally got it onboard, removed the tiller and got it all lashed down while Carlotta dealt with the sails. Once that was all done and a few deep breaths had been taken, I began closely inspecting things to see what on earth had just happened.
Long story short, the Ruddercraft's pintles had both broken. They are made from a piece of stainless angle with a 1/2" hole in the horizontal part, into which a 1/2" pin is inserted and welded at the top.That weld had failed. Looking over the transom I saw this:
And later I took this angle:
Close up view of the pintle pin, you can see where the weld went around its circumference:
PART THREE:
We obviously couldn't sail anymore, so we needed to head back to the marina, about five miles away (dead to windward, obviously). So we fired up the trusty Tohatsu, pulled up the anchor, and put our nose into the wind.
Thirty seconds later ... the engine abruptly spluttered, coughed, and died. (Insert a very long string of expletives here.)
We spent the next half hour alternately dropping the anchor, me getting the motor running again, pulling up the anchor, setting off, motor quitting. Lather, rinse and repeat. It would idle fine, it would even allow itself to be revved to high RPM's in neutral, but kept dying when put in gear and throttled up. I kept thinking clogged jet, or bad gas, although the (ethanol free) gas was pretty new, as is the tank itself. We were just about to finally call TowBoat US when I thought hey, we have a spare spark plug on board, why not try it? I have heard of spark plugs suddenly going bad without warning, although I have never seen it, or personally met anyone who had. But I'll be dipped in snot ... this time she fired up with a vengeance, and away we went. First time for everything ... times three in one week.
Back at the dock, I jumped in the truck and ran to a nearby hardware store, where I found some 1/2" stainless bolts and lock nuts. I drilled the broken weld residue out of the pintle brackets, held the rudder in place against the gudgeons, and dropped the bolts in. After taking a quick dip in the marina's pool, we were throwing off the docklines and heading back out to the gulf, where we arrived just in time to grill some steaks and red peppers before sunset, while anchored off a deserted sandy beach, listening to Beres Hammond and sipping some Appleton's rum. We ended the cruise the next morning due to weather, but at least we ended it on our terms, not equipment failure.
And for you guys who have Ruddercrafts ... watch those welds. Better yet, remove them and get them reinforced.
Last edited:
