Lost my rudder in the Baltic! Idasailor folks to the rescue!
Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:12 pm
So I'm 2 days into a 3 week trip along the southeast cost of Finland, up through Russian waters past Viipuri, through the Saimaa canal to the Saimaa lake district in eastern Finland, with a bit of sailing around the Saimaa lakes and then back home the same way.
I'm on a broad reach, nearly a run, with 12 knots of wind, 1/2 meter seas, 15-20 meters depth below me, an hour out from my last anchorage with about 3 hours to go on that same run, beautiful sailing. 22C and blue skies. The only negatives being rather sharp, choppy, closely packed waves and the occasional odd cross wave (welcome to the Baltic). Lots of helm work, but all in all, nice.
Then, without warning and without noting anything unusual about the boats motion, other than the persistant rocking horse rythm given the choppy seas, I hear a loud crack and subsequent splashing behind the boat. When I look back, I see my port rudder (which was the lee rudder at the time) flailing about behind the boat on the rudder lines. So I head up, drop sail, and cut the broken rudder free. Here are some photos of the carnage (taken after getting to my next anchorage):
More images:
http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/s/1002/33 ... 159c8d.jpg
http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/s/1002/b2 ... 37149f.jpg
http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/s/1002/40 ... 9bde1d.jpg
My rudders are from Idasailor, not the stock MacGregor fiberglass rudders, and just over a year old.
My guess is that there was some kind of manufacturing defect in the composite of the rudder and with just the right combination of cross waves, boat movement, helm movement, etc. it reached a point of no return. The break is almost surgically perfect, just below the stanless steel bracket. There are no marks on the rudder, so it probably wasn't impact of any kind, just too much torque or force in just the right way.
So I limp to my next planned anchorage at Norra Sandö island for the night, being nearly there already. Here's a photo:
After a bit to eat, I call Idasailor (Finland has perfect cellphone coverage all along its coastline, extending out into the archipelago) and tell them about my misadventure with the rudder. Without hesitation, I'm told not to worry, they'll take care of me, and a new replacement rudder is now on it's way by FedEx as I type this. I can't say strongly enough how great the folks at Idasailor have been. Exemplary customer service. And a true Lifetime Warranty on their products, not a "Warranty" with countless exceptions.
Still needing to make my way to Lappeenranta in the Saimaa, where I'll pick up the replacement rudder, I needed to jury rig the broken rudder in some fashion. The twin rudders on a 26X are a tad bit underpowered as it is IMO, and with only one rudder, I needed to motorsail at idle to be able to power out of the occasional broach when the one rudder was overpowered by a cross wave. So after motorsailing the next day approx. 40 NM on one rudder to the harbor at Kotka, the marina staff were very helpful and let me use their workshop to cutdown, shape and redrill the broken rudder. It's about 8 inches shorter than original, but hopefully will work well enough to get me through Russian waters to the Saimaa canal and to Lappeenranta where the new rudder will be waiting. Here's the repaired rudder:
At least my trip isn't turning out to be boring
I'm on a broad reach, nearly a run, with 12 knots of wind, 1/2 meter seas, 15-20 meters depth below me, an hour out from my last anchorage with about 3 hours to go on that same run, beautiful sailing. 22C and blue skies. The only negatives being rather sharp, choppy, closely packed waves and the occasional odd cross wave (welcome to the Baltic). Lots of helm work, but all in all, nice.
Then, without warning and without noting anything unusual about the boats motion, other than the persistant rocking horse rythm given the choppy seas, I hear a loud crack and subsequent splashing behind the boat. When I look back, I see my port rudder (which was the lee rudder at the time) flailing about behind the boat on the rudder lines. So I head up, drop sail, and cut the broken rudder free. Here are some photos of the carnage (taken after getting to my next anchorage):
More images:
http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/s/1002/33 ... 159c8d.jpg
http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/s/1002/b2 ... 37149f.jpg
http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/s/1002/40 ... 9bde1d.jpg
My rudders are from Idasailor, not the stock MacGregor fiberglass rudders, and just over a year old.
My guess is that there was some kind of manufacturing defect in the composite of the rudder and with just the right combination of cross waves, boat movement, helm movement, etc. it reached a point of no return. The break is almost surgically perfect, just below the stanless steel bracket. There are no marks on the rudder, so it probably wasn't impact of any kind, just too much torque or force in just the right way.
So I limp to my next planned anchorage at Norra Sandö island for the night, being nearly there already. Here's a photo:
After a bit to eat, I call Idasailor (Finland has perfect cellphone coverage all along its coastline, extending out into the archipelago) and tell them about my misadventure with the rudder. Without hesitation, I'm told not to worry, they'll take care of me, and a new replacement rudder is now on it's way by FedEx as I type this. I can't say strongly enough how great the folks at Idasailor have been. Exemplary customer service. And a true Lifetime Warranty on their products, not a "Warranty" with countless exceptions.
Still needing to make my way to Lappeenranta in the Saimaa, where I'll pick up the replacement rudder, I needed to jury rig the broken rudder in some fashion. The twin rudders on a 26X are a tad bit underpowered as it is IMO, and with only one rudder, I needed to motorsail at idle to be able to power out of the occasional broach when the one rudder was overpowered by a cross wave. So after motorsailing the next day approx. 40 NM on one rudder to the harbor at Kotka, the marina staff were very helpful and let me use their workshop to cutdown, shape and redrill the broken rudder. It's about 8 inches shorter than original, but hopefully will work well enough to get me through Russian waters to the Saimaa canal and to Lappeenranta where the new rudder will be waiting. Here's the repaired rudder:
At least my trip isn't turning out to be boring