Found the shallow spot - Columbia River OR

[Gerry the fish]

Ran aground today on the Columbia, the river is really low and ran into a sandbank in an area Id swear Ive sailed over before.

As soon as we hit, I released the sails, tried to pull up the daggerboard but it was stuck fast. I got the engine down and put it in reverse, I was more worried about making sure the pee stream was running that I forgot to pull up the rudders, got a little reverse motion and dug one ruddder into the sand.

I tried pulling up the rudders, but in my haste I didnt uncleat one all the way, so Im pulling up against the cleated line and wondering why it wouldnt budge.

Jumped in the water (about 2 feet deep at this point) and realized the issues with the rudder, got all the boards up and walked the boat back to deeper water.

Damage done: I removed all the paint off the propellor revving it in the sand. I wont know what the center board looks like until I take her out of the water in a few weeks for the winter.

I sail a dinghy (Lido 14) and we always laugh that if you capsize, (usually not a big deal) all the lines are cleated and you have to dive under the boat and release the centerboard line and sheets in order to get her righted. There should be a checklist of the 5 step process of things you do as you capsize in slow-mo and get everything prepared.

I need the same for the Macgregor running aground.

[Gerry the fish]

Does anyone cleat their rudders down in such a way so that they will pop up if they hit something?

Ive thought about doing this in the past, but with a daggerboard going to hit first anyway - I didnt think it was necessary.

Gerry

[Retcoastie]

I just wind the downhaul line around the cleat once and then tuck the excess under the cushion. I have a mark on the line that shows when the rudder is full down. A quick glance lets me know if they are creeping up or have hit something.

[Loala]

Look at the mod section. Someone did a pop-up rudder cleat.


ModsNote: I didn't see it in MacMods, but search the Forum for kick up ~fc

[jeffz]

Gerry,

Where were you? Just wanting to know what spot to avoid. We were out saturday evening just east of the 205. We are still relatively new but the wind out of the west made for some awesome sailing between Govt Island and the Wa shore.


Jeff

[Trouts Dream]

Visited some friends on Buffalo Lake this summer. 36 square miles of lake and average depth is 9 ft (deepest is 21 ft). Lots of shallow spots (goota love the X swing keel for this lake). I read somewhere on this board a trick for tying off the rudders that I used succesfuly on this lake. After pulling the rudder downhaul line taut I create a loop about 2 inches high in the line and then continue to wrap and tie off the rudder lines as always around the cleat. Whenever I heard the clunk on the centre board I kept an eye on the loops. Twice the loops almost disapeared and when I got to deeper water I simply retied them.
I am now in the habit of doing this all the time as it is a lot easier than rebuilding the rudders.

[bubba]

At least the water is 70 deg or better this time of year.

[Gerry the fish]

Gerry,

Where were you?

Jeff

Further west than you - Directly in front of the airport control tower - that side of the river has a long shallow section between pylons that run out into the river - I thought I was far enough out - but apparently not.

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

The cheapest, simplest, and first mod I ever did to my Mac26X was to replace part of the rudder lines (the part that holds the rudder down) with (5/8?) bungie cord from WM. Over 5 years later, this bungie is still going strong (a bit more stretch now). In Shallow west Florida, the rudders are always hitting the dirt and this lets them kick up. Of course, won't do you any good if you are trying to reverse with the rudders down...done that once myself after running aground and then you learn to watch for it. I expect out in the Pacific NW, you don't have that much experience running aground

[Gerry the fish]

Pulled the boat out of the water today and inspected for damage after running aground on sand as described above.

Daggerboard looks great, removed some paint off the bottom of the motor and the propellor.

Otherwise looks great. I love my Mac.

Thats an early end to the season for me, Im tied up for the next few weekends so we pulled her out of the water. Cant wait for April.

Gerry

[Wind Chime]

We do not cleat off our rudders when they are in the down position. We let the lines run free.

They stay in the down position because I have tightened the bolts where the rudders pivot. Just tight enough to make them stay in position, but still easy enough to lift. They stay down securely until are going around 8 knots (when we pull them up anyway).

Nice thing about the is the "Swing-Keel" vs. the "Dagger-Board". We have never ran aground (yet), but when we do, it's nice to know the keel and rudders will just lift up.

Darry