MacGregorSailors.com

Yesterday I returned to my dock at a very low tide and hit bottom hard with my rudder which was down. I have a cleat on the rudder castle and had it cleated down. Logic tells me that if it is tied down tight that either of the following will occur if the rudder hits anything to hard: (1) Rope will break (2) Cleat will pull out or break or (3) All of the above and rudder my suffer damage.

What do you suggest as the best course of action as to how to secure the rudder in a down but moveable position in the event of a hard hit.

By the way....I suffered number two....I pulled the cleat out of the rudder castle. No damage to rudder.

Mike

Use a spliced-in bungee cord. Lots of folks have done that mod, and it's documented here in the forums.. .check the Search function. For example: http://www.macgregorsailors.com/forum/v ... f=7&t=9180

Thank You kmclemore , KISS works for me. Sometimes the simple things elude me....sometimes they don't.

Even simpler solution. pull the rudder down hard with the line, then instead of cleating it off, 'trap' the pull down line on the cleat with the other piece of line. If the rudder hits hard ground, it can pull the line out of the cleat and save the mechanicals from the strain/breakage.

You want one of these.......

http://www.clamcleat.com/cleats/cleat_d ... ?theid2=78

I think either the bungee rig or the special releasing cleat would work fine. I had neither and ran aground one time, but somehow avoided any damage at all. Think the line stretched and tightened around the cleat to accommodate the force.

Thank You gents for all the suggestions. I prefer the "releasing clam cleat" and will be ordering one soon. Let me note that the previous owner must have had the same problem and had taken corrective action, thus that is why I didn't suffer any real damage on my sudden grounding of the rudder. He had put the standard cleat on the rudder castle using machine thread bolts and they only went in as far as the other side of the castle thickness but not far enough to put a nut and washer on them. He had used what appears to be 3M 4200 or other heavy sealant in the hole and under the cleat. The cleat thus pulled out and because of the angle of force bent the bolts. So in essence he had built a safety feature not unlike the "releasing clam cleat" into the system. Since the line was routed through the middle of the cleat, it was not loss in the process of being pulled out of the rudder castle, thus I have put it back on in the same fashion and will use it while waithing to get a releasing cleat.

Thanks again crew for your suggestions.

dear Group:

I make up shear pins out of 3/8" wood dowel. Soak them for a day in boiled linseed oil. Drill an 1/8" hole at each end. Use a lanyard of nylon long enough to allow the wood pin to go through the hold down hole then attach at the lanyards end a slip pin. This has worked very well but they do shear if you hit bottom. I found tying the rudder down to be very ineffective since it always moves back a few critical inches.