More thoughts on emergency steering

[svShearwater]

An interesting read on another alternate steering method: http://bermudarace.com/wp-content/up...t-a-Rudder.pdf

I'm told that the vessel Shearwater, a J120, was approved for the Pac Cup in 2012 using this steering technique, or something similar. If so, why not use the method for the SHTP?

We were approved in 2014 (ironically I started this thread) by arguably a tough inspector. In the end we ended up adding a used SOS rudder.

Agree the drogue would be tough singlehanded. We found it worked much better the faster you went. Also, I suspect it would work much better if the rudder were gone/removed. The J/120 has a big rudder that is difficult for any esteer to overcome.

[svShearwater]

I had a similar issue on my J/88. Gudgeon are quite beefy....backed up by a lot of glass inside. So accepted a low likelyhood
of failure at that point, and so had a cassette/blade built by Gilles Combrisson. To get enough distance between gudgeons if I built (had built) a separate mounting point the upper gudgeon would have needed some sort of tripod on the deck. One failure mode exists with my setup if a single pintle fails the torque of the rudder may bend the upper gudgeon.....and then I am SOL.
I choose to accept this and move forward as any sailboat has more than a few of these failure modes.

ALSO keep in mind any autopilot attached to the tiller at the time of failure....may get torn away or destroyed......so a redundant autopilot an mounting system should be thought through.



Attachment 1036

Chris, I thought of one more thing you/we could do to improve the emergency steering likelihood of working for a transom like ours. As you mention, the weak link in this plan is if the gudgeons or transom fail. I'm thinking of getting a nice generous piece of G10 and trim it to match the transom, complete with pre-drilled holes for where the existing gudgeons go and additional holes to bolt the G10 to the transom. Also, carry an identical replacement set of gudgeons. That way, you could essentially replicate all/any of the components of the steering system.