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No real question here, just logging two errors I made resulting in equipment damage, hopefully for the benefit of others to not repeat.
Was sailing the Skerry w/ lug rig in moderate winds (5-10 mph). While tacking I noticed that I had reasonable performance close-hauled with the wind to port, but could barely manage a beam reach with the wind to starboard.
Looking up, I discovered the sail was wrong, probably due to flapping around while rigging. The front portion of both the yard and the boom were on the wrong (port) side of the mast, such that the halyard was was tangled near the top. This was causing the wind to spill out of the sale when the wind was on the starboard side. This was error #1.
I steered into irons and went forward to try and fix this. As soon as I let go of the tiller, the wind pushed the bow to port, which pulled rudder to port, and the handle end of the tiller extension dropped into the water. I ignored this (error #2) and worked on the sail, which was taking a while because the halyard was tight at the top of the mast and I was unable to shake it down. While I was fiddling with it, at one point I grabbed the boom and swung it out of the way to try and loosen the halyard; the wind filled the sale and pulled the boat the other way, swinging the rudder to starboard. The tiller extension (handle end in the water) acted like a big lever and snapped the yoke off at its skinniest point.
6 replies:
RE: Snapped a Skerry Yoke
A repairable owie, but still an owie. I'd be inclined to sand the yoke to wood and laminate a layer of fiberglass around it after gluing it together. That would mean more refinishing, though. Either way, that can be back in service nice and quick.
I'll bet it was a twisting motion that broke it. That's why I like either the lashing method of connecting the yoke and tiller with line or a 2 axis u-joint. I think they'd be less likely to bind up like the tiller likely did here, dropping in the water and then being forced downward, at right angles to the bolt axis.
RE: Snapped a Skerry Yoke
Repairs in progress. I didn't think the broken bits were salvagable, so I cut it off flat and bought a some .5" and .25" oak boards; cut them into a squarish approximation, and am gluing it up as a sandwich. planning to put some dowels through to "pin" everything in place and then roundoff all the corners and refinish.
Agreed on a better connection between the tiller and yoke. Also, I think I'm going to figure out some way to keep the end of the tiller extension inside the boat, possibly as discussed in this post here.
RE: Snapped a Skerry Yoke
You might want to think about using a different method of attaching the tiller to the rudder yoke. The set up you are using puts too much strain on the yoke. You might want to try using a "Racelite Tiller Extension Swivel" from Duckworks. Here is the link for it.
http://Racelite Tiller Extension Swivel
RE: Snapped a Skerry Yoke
I find that heaving to works quite nicely on the Skerry and provides a nice stable-ish platform for messing with the sail. I usually do it on a port tack, roughly in a reach or close reach, tie up the mainsheet and lash the tiller to starboard (fighting the boat's tendency to head up). This is quite immune to small wind shifts and gives you a fairly safe way to do things around the boat.
RE: Snapped a Skerry Yoke
Thanks all for the suggestions, all fixed. I made a replacement end for the Yoke and sandwiched it around the unbroken part of the yoke for strength. It won't break there next time at least :) . Also used the tiller extension swivel as suggested.
Also I made a little adjustable strap with webbing to keep the tiller extension from falling overboard next time.
RE: Snapped a Skerry Yoke
» Submitted by ErikD - Sun, 10/1/17 » 11:05 AM