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Thread: Rudder failure

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    40

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    Excellent example of seamanship. I keep thinking of the BAMA Farallones Skipper meeting and recent Safety at Sea Seminars emphasizing seamanship being a failure point in the last three fatal ocean sailing incidents (one of which involved rudder failure) and your experience demonstrates just what I think those panels would have desired. So glad you are the success story. Nicely done Max, and thanks for sharing.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    37.205346,-121.963398
    Posts
    788

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    Nice job Max. I once lost a rudder about 400 miles from Hawaii. I also had a cassette set up. Installation was really trivial and we were up and running after recovery of the kite and pouring a bottle of rum into the sea. The rudder failure in my case was a failure in a weld inside the rudder. The stainless rudder post had a stainless rod inserted and welded. The rod had "paddles" that fanned out into the foam core to capture the rudder load. This weld failed leaving just a few inches in the water. When it came time to order the build of the new rudder I engaged Advanced Composites in Santa Cruz. They took me to the dead rudder dept. where they had on display a fine collection of rudders bent and broken with precisely the same failure as mine. The team at Advanced indicated that the 70's and 80's boats were prone to this type of failure if the rudder was built in the fashion I described. Good luck on a replacement. I had Carl S. design mine and I would highly recommend getting a new modern shape. It made a huge difference in boat handling.

    Brian

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