Sailrig rudder failure

 

I'm not happy with the eyebolts for mounting my rudder ( based on MkII plans) . This is the second time they've pulled out and I'm done with it.  If others have gas success here - and I use an end pour and drill-fill-drill, but alas failure anyway. The following is the account...

 

I went sailing the other day leaving at 4pm. My wind forecast app rightly told me winds from 15 to 20 knots were expected and so I planned accordingly. Winds were light at first as I meandered along at 4-4.5 mph but true to forecast the winds built up till I was beginning to surf in the direction of my exiting the harbor into open LI Sound.

Then I lost all directional control - 2 miles from land I was careening now out into oblivion with no response from my rudder inputs and looking back found it planing on the water. I should mention at this point this rudder is my own fabrication based on MKII plans. Its also the second time my fabricating has failed me but this was particularly perilous...

The waves were now building and the wind was due NW - EXACTLY the direction I needed to go. I put all my strength into paddling as hard as I could and found to my dismay speeds ranging from 0 to 1.5 mph with 0.5 being the norm. I paddled into exhaustion then took a break only to find myself being blown back out the harbor. So I stayed at it and stayed at it and stayed at it and finally came to terms with the fact I was not able to make it back to the boat ramp. I would have to go where the wind blew me without venturing into the opens sound. That the sky was now blue-purple looking like lightening (but none forecasted) only added to my anxiety.

I texted my wife telling her I might not be home tonight as the craft was disabled and i was drifting and paddling to a far away beach miles from my car. The cool air temps made the idea dreadful. I didn't know exactly what could be needed to fix the rudder once on land so that was my worst case scenario. I had ideas about lashing it to the craft where the bolts sheared. As the waves built to 3 feet breaking over my port side my ideas of sailing in this water with a Jimmyrigged rudder became foolhardy at best. Disasterous is was more like it .

I scanned my upcoming but still distant landfall as I crept at a seemingly speedy 2.5mph. I took breaks often as I was dispirited and exhausted. I wanted firm land so bad now. I texted my wife I was safe but possibly not coming home tonight. I eyed a park but it had a rocky shoreline, then a residential area with beachfront property. I saw sand and that was all it took.

I finally made landfall after getting port slapped continuously with the 3 footers and never felt better for it. I was startled to learn I had virtually no upper body strength to lift myself from the craft. It was a shaky grunting maneuver that caught the homeowners attention who'd seen my drama play out. 

"I saw you struggling" was her first words - thankfully - it wasn't going to be a pissing ground contest. I was still below the high tide line ;).

Surveying the damage finally revealed my awful circumstances. My rudder broke free partially but acted as a hydro-brake by laying a flat ninety degrees to my travel. It fluttered and veered but ever remained as a monumental drag that sapped me dry.

I slowly put my salvation to work...

Ok I have money in my car, ill call a taxi - lo and behold the home owner (renter I came to learn) said it was fine for me to beach my craft over night.

Free at last.

Safety review: wisdom learned wasn't new but it was reaffirmed - even a shakedown test cruise can go horribly awry. Always carry exposure wear for that unplanned forced beaching that leaves you cold wet and alone till rescue - self or otherwise. I always have a space blanket, etc, but not this time. I was too too optimistic and careless as a result.

Lesson number 2: I am SO getting an outboard. This could have happened with me ten miles being the closest land - easily. Not only would have the outboard afforded me better speed it would have allowed far better steering and I could have power sailed. Paddling alone with sail up was miserable to liability prone. With sail lowered I moved just as awful. If you have no rudder control and its fluttering sailing his not an option. A motor would have had the needed muscle I so dearly wanted.

3. I can't trust eyebolts anymore back there and to be quite frank I never like the idea of stressing the seam like that of the stern . My next design better disperses the stress loading and I can feel comfortable with that.  I'm now wondering when the aka eyebolts are going to pull.  Ill have an alternate for that too.  

You have no idea how warm and inviting even the simple smells of home are when you realize you ain't gonna make it.

Pete
 

14 replies:

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RE: Sailrig rudder failure

Pete - that sounds like an epic struggle! It's always good to learn from things like this so you can be a bit better prepared next time around.

A few times over the years, I had to deal with being not being able to make it back to my starting point on sail boards, with the wind picking up a bit higher than forecast, or changing direction hours earlier than it was supposed to. I'lve also had to roll up the rig and paddle home against the current the last 2-3 km when the wind dropped while circumnavigating a fairly large island... the same island, twice! This was on long boards.

I've also had to deal with running out of wind on a short board driftiing / paddling to land and then and having to hitch a ride back to my starting point. hike

I've also swam as hard as I could and not been able to catch up with a board when the rig landed on top of the board, keeping the whole lot skipping ahead of me must a bit faster than I could swim. At least it was blowing towards shore, albeit a rocky one.

In a sailing dinghy, I once spent the night out on an island when the wind dropped and the tide was going out. I used the sail for a shelter against some overnight drizzle, and then drifted back to the dock in the morning as the wind slowy filled in again.

Rowing, I have also been out on the calmest most benign of days and then came out from the protection of an island into wind that was just too much to row into. Fortunately, I was able to travel 90 degrees to the wind in the lee of a low island for a while and then turn into the wind. I was eventually able to make progress, but I was rowing so hard that I was actually bending the oars.

It's probably easier said than done, but could you have doused the sail, retrieved the rudder, and set up an oar or a paddle to act as a rudder, and then tried sailing again?

Keith

RE: Sailrig rudder failure

Hi Keith and thank you for sharing your experiences.

 

I thought several times about leaving the kayak cockpit to go to stern for repair but this was a shakedown cruise for some mods I did to the rig and I didn't have my handy deck bag for which to put my electronics.  They were safe on me where a slight sash was all but they could've gotten submerged in all the moving around - a little water was beginning to get in the cockpit from my undoing my spray skirt to access done things underneath. Had I had my deck bag I would've stowed and go'd to the stern.

Reflecting in the actual damages a Jerry-rigged roped in place rudder could have worked perhaps for a short time however ineffective. I always always carry spare line on board.  When I made it across the harbor however and saw the three foot chop and tops spilling over that had developed I quickly dashed all ideas of a roped rudder in that kind of water force.  If it were under ten knots wind Ida made a try .

 

My rudder redux is going to be a SOLID performer. If I can't rely on something that inportant I have to change things.  In amazed no one else had these issues. Maybe my eye bolts weren't long enough but longer eye bolts require a deeper end fill.

 

Ill post my new mounting when its done.

 

 

Thanks  for the comments and support!

 

Pete

 

 

RE: Sailrig rudder failure

Pete, I too have had many miss adventures while under sail very simular to Keith on boats and sail boards. I also lost a mast over board in a blow 450 miles south of Hawaii on the way to Tahiti. I feel your frustrations ! Over the years I have learned to play out the what ifs in my mind and what would the solution be. Nothing like being prepared for the worst! Mounting rudders with eye bolts always seemed like asking for trouble. There are many other things when building CLC boats that are accidents waiting to happen. CLC boats are built for avarage conditions. I live in Hawaii where you have to build for the worst conditions. Always over build, over rig, and over plan your boats and sailing adventures. Your life depends on it. There is no such thing as being too safe or too caughtious !

RE: Sailrig rudder failure

Pete - for me, a very timely, although surely a frightening report.  I was once in a similar situation when one of the rudders on my Prindle 19 catamaran sheered off most of the stern mounting bolts and was left also at 90 degrees in the water, making steering impossible.  I was luckily within a 100 yards of the beach, but unluckily headed straight for the side of a very large, long pier in about 15 knots of wind, blowing straight on shore..  No way I could tack away from the shore, and the pier was fast approaching.  I was able to retract the bad rudder by pulling repeatedly with all my might on the "rudder up" line and making a last minute jibe towards the beach.  I was then able to steer, with the remaining good rudder, back to my launch point.

And another time, windsurfing on a short board in about 20 knots of wind, I became horribly overpowered when the wind suddenly went to 30 with higher gusts.  Slammed down into the water, I couldn't pull off a water start without getting slammed back down again.  I was in the Sacramento River at the Delts, rapidly being swept in the direction of San Francisco Bay and already out of earshot of my companions.  After about 20 minutes of this, I finally pulled off a water start, only to find that I no longer had the arm strength to sheet in the sail once I was up.  Back down again.  My only course of action was to swim with my board and rig and hope to make it to shore before being swept away.  This was very slow going, as my strength was almost gone, and I had to rest frequently while rapidly drifting farther away from the launch.  Finally made it to the rip rap levee after about another 20 minutes and pulled everything up onto the rocks.  Never loved rocks so much before.  One of my friends noticed me not being with them any more and got in his van and drove down the levee looking for me.  He pulled up about 5 minutes after I finally made it in.

I'm in the process of building a WD12 with mkIII sailrig, and today was the day to tackle putting in solid wood stem and stern end pieces, in the manner suggestied by Laszlo.  Now I'm taking a little time to look at what my options are, and I hope you don't mind a few questions:  were you using the eye bolts sold by CLC for the rudder kit?  It sounds from your description that they are prone to pulling out.  Did you epoxy them in, or were they screwed into hardened epoxy?  I'm starting to consider drilling through-holes and using large washers and nuts on the inboard end of the bolts, but I first need to see if I can reach them from the back hatch.   Prindle did this on their cats, with a large stainless plate between the washers and end pieces.  I'm also considering doing this with the aka eye bolts now.  Like you, this is another piece of the boat I don't want to worry about.

Definitely second you on the need for emergency gear on-board, especially when sailing well off-shore.  The one extra item I would take would be a waterproof hand-held marine vhf transceiver, securely clipped to my pfd.  I have an Icom IC-M32, which I treasure.  (Probably an old model by now, but it works.)  And a whistle.  

By all means, share your new mounting set-up.  Looking forward to it.

Peter 

 

 

RE: Sailrig rudder failure

On the WD12 you can definately reach the back transome from the hatch. I have built three of them with stainless U-bolts back there for attaching stern lines to. Glass on the outside, the plywood, about 4-5 layers of tape, and finally 3/4 inch of timber. The rear of the boat is coming off before the U-bolt.

RE: Sailrig rudder failure

You guys have seen some difficult times!!!! Thanks for the replies. This thread has become quite informative with all of these accounts being told.  Just to be clear - in fairness to Harris and CLC I am plum in love with the MkII sailrig and its performance with my WR180. It is an incrediy effective performer and quite fast.  My comments single out difficulties with the eye bolts only not the craft(s) as a whole.

 

my technique for the eye bolts (I built from plans) was to have a generous end pour in the stern. I used eye bolts whose threaded end went about SN inch or 1.25" into the stern. Perhaps this was too shallow?  I drilled into the stern end then w

willed with epoxy to seal the wood from moisture. Then I drilled into the cured epoxy fill with a smaller still bit to create the hole for the eyebolt.  I dipped the threads in fresh epoxy and screwed it into the holes and it cured with more than enough time to use even it finally made it to the water. So initially it was CLC's "drill-fill-drill" technique...

drill hole slightly larger than bolt, fill with fresh epoxy, let cure, drill small diameter hole for bolt, dip bolt in fresh epoxy, screw in firm - let cure.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Pete

RE: Sailrig rudder failure

Wow I can't type - an iPhone doesn't help lol. Willed is meant to be filled, SN is meant to be simply "an".

 

Sorry

 

Pete

RE: Sailrig rudder failure

To paraphrase old Churchie, I would characterize the eyebolt-and-rod scheme as "the worst of all solutions, except for every other solution that has been tried."  Unless you're a skilled welder and can make up custom gudgeons for a kayak's stern, you've a sod's own choice for something better.

That said, the eyebolt scheme CAN be made absolutely strong.  

We have a 13-year-old Chesapeake 17 with the SailRig MK2, currently upgraded to the 70-square-foot sail.  The eyebolts pulled out of that one last year, with predictably unhappy results for the skipper.  

On examination, the eyebolts were fairly short, and mostly threaded into wood, which had deteriorated.

To fix it, we cut another inch off the Chesapeake's stern, yielding a "fat" stern that was mostly solid epoxy.  Then we drilled oversized holes, and seated the eyebolts in fresh epoxy.  Foreshortening the stern a bit means that there's a lot more "meat" around the shank of the eyebolt.  

The result is enormously strong---I'm sure you could dangle the kayak by one of the eyebolts without fear.  

Absent some sort of custom fabrication, the eyebolts are still the best.  They just need to be very firmly seated.  I note that I've torn more "traditional" gudgeons out of sailboat transoms than I have eyebolts from double-enders.

Kayak Sailing Rudder

RE: Sailrig rudder failure

Here's a link to that sternpiece treatment on my WD12 that Peter mentioned. I had vague ideas of a rudder one day and I wanted to avoid exactly the scenario that he described. The stern piece is a chunk of 2x4 shaped to fit inside the back of the boat.

Building a Wood Duck 12 - Stem & stern pieces

 

 

Laszlo

 

RE: Sailrig rudder failure

The methods you describe sound solid.  I've got my own idea (sure its not mine though) that I want to go through with .   It should prove to be quite solid if a little heavy but Im not so concerned about the extra pound.  Ill post pics when Im done which should be soon as seasons getting cool .

 

- I think I got PTSD from my ordeal!  I went by the sound today - normally a relaxing lunch - lol - it was too soon.  I'm given it another couple weeks - rudder will be done then too.

 

Thanks  for the tips John.

 

Pete

RE: Sailrig rudder failure

I have  not tried any of the above, but I like the look of what Lazzlo did and then wondered about a couple of through bolts with big washers and locking nuts.  Would be hard to get in to hold the nuts on the inside but I can not imagine anything that would pull them out.

Ed

RE: Sailrig rudder failure

Just did a dry run, and found that a 10" socket extension is plenty long enough to allow me to get to the stern of the WD12 to hold locking nuts in place for tightening.  Going to go with the through-holes and wooden stern piece, using a piece of 1-1/2" white oak for its rot resistance and side hardness/crush resistance.  Have to agree with John about the eye bolts being the best available solution, having looked at all the commercially available gudgeons on other sites that would fit the WD12, and none of them look to be as resistant to pull-out or side-twist.

Peter

RE: Sailrig rudder failure

Pete that was quite the adventure. I found that the MKIII sail rig on a LT17 offered a few challenges under sail in big wind and big seas.

I lost rudder control almost immediately and eventually snapped off my lee board in heavy seas half way between Long Beach harbor and Catalina Island. I ended up with massive knots on my elbows using the paddle as a rudder.

I used the Feathercraft rudder mount because it seems strong and it offers almost the same type of mounting options as eye bolts for a number of rudders. Take a look in the CLC catalog for a picture. To beef up the end of the kayak, I wrapped it in carbon fiber first. I do not want the forces ripping off my stern.

I found that in a strong blow the kayak will round directly into the wind, which was not your issue, but the effect is the same: you can't steer. To address this I learned that I can reef the sail heavily and then get some directional control, even if I have to push the sail with my hand. Try that next time and maybe you will be able to tack.

Good luck.

WCGW

RE: Sailrig rudder failure

It sounds like a strong wind causes severe weather helm - did I read that right? I'd ve thought you'd dial it out with the rudder.  This is a curious situation you ve mentioned. I'm wondering if the rudder is too small for your sail.

 

Could you elaborate more?

 

I'm still working with the rudder attachment rebuild.  Its bomb proof so far. Instead of carbon fiber Im using 1/8" aluminum strips - laminated.  I will NEVER have rudder failure again!!

 

i didn't understand knots on your elbows and how did you swear with your paddle and no rudder?  I've found the paddle was pointless though now and again I hear if someone's success with it. Wish I knew the technique!

 

Pete

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