Emergency Rudder

cannon

cannon

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10 Jul 2007
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France, Port La Nouvelle
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Hi

I was recently reading an article where someone lodt there rudder and used a sea anchor to steer the yacht.

I found this quite interesting and wondered if any one can tell me what would be best for me if this happened, i Have a 6.72 mtr bilge keel wooden yacht

Cannon
 
It is possible apparently, by using a form of bridle across to port and starboard winches and winding it to one side or the other to steer.....

Only likely to be of any use when you have extensive searoom, and not much use once you close in on a shore or entrance....

Personally, I have a decent sized oar on board that I will lash to the transom, and that combined with use of the sails and heel will do me until I have a proper alternative, ie a wind vane self steering system.
 
[ QUOTE ]
It is possible apparently, by using a form of bridle across to port and starboard winches and winding it to one side or the other to steer.....

Only likely to be of any use when you have extensive searoom, and not much use once you close in on a shore or entrance....

Personally, I have a decent sized oar on board that I will lash to the transom, and that combined with use of the sails and heel will do me until I have a proper alternative, ie a wind vane self steering system.

[/ QUOTE ]

When your centre of effort has changed that drastically - will an oar do anything?
 
Try it...... you'd be surprised......

I can tack my boat by locking the rudder, with just an or blade in the water....

I guess i'd need to work on the sail trim to balance out the change underwater profile.... and it probably helps that my prop shaft is encased, providing a mini skeg to help her track a little.....
 
What I was driving at was that the loss of the rudder area will, on some modern yachts, make such a difference to the underwater profile that she becomes directionally unstable. Whether this could be counteracted for very long by a piece of plywood lashed to a spinnaker pole with an exhausted [and probably frightened] man at the other end seems to me to be doubtful.

My only experience of this was when trying to tow a Legend without her rudder in mid-Atlantic and it proved impossible even with many warps streamed astern of her. The Legend sheered wildly from side to side and kept overtaking the towing yacht, snapping the towline like string. The Legend's owner was unable to rig up anything to use as a jury rudder because stern of the boat is so high out of the water that no pole on board would have been long enough. Also, having no backstays, there was nothing substantial to lash the pole to. In any case, weather that would snap off the yacht's rudder would soon have made short work of any jury rudder, and probably broken the helmsman's ribs!

Looking back on it, I think the best thing that could have been done was for the Legend to tow us, so that we acted as her rudder. The Royal Navy did this during the last war when a destroyer lost the use of her rudder. Wonderfu thing - hindsight. 20/20!

Val Howells, a far more experienced sailor than any of us were, steered a yacht across much of the Atlantic with a jury rudder and even he didn't find it easy.
 
This is an invalid test.

With the rudder intact, the CoE is unchanged. If you were in a situation to use a jury rigged rudder, i.e. the rudder is critically damaged, the CoE will be much changed, to the point of instability.

I doubt your average spinnaker pole/washboard would be able to control the boat,
 
Maybe.... in reality we just don't know do we?...... but its worth a try...... its as valid as I can make it.... at least I have a strategy that I have tested as best as can be done..... more than most I suspect... its possible that a smaller surface area but further aft would be enough to at least get me home....

My stern isn't so high that a jury rudder couldn't be rigged, and I do have a decent amount of rearward keel in the water in the form of the shaft enclosure..... plus backstays and plenty of other feasible locations for rigging a jury rudder....

I can to a certain extent balance out the CoE moving right forward by tuning the rig appropriately... maybe not enough to completely remove the imbalance, but enough to help a a little...

I'd advise anyone to go stick an oar behind their boat and observe the effect... you'll be surprised at how much impact it has...

Regardless, I don't fancy going out for a sail, and dropping my rudder off to test it out though if thats OK with you..... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Rather than slagging off Morgana's efforts, I compliment him on having carried out an exercise we should all consider before it happens for real. All boats are different and what is effective for one will be useless in another. Follow M's lead and work something out for your own boat - in advance!
 
[ QUOTE ]
This is an invalid test.

With the rudder intact, the CoE is unchanged. If you were in a situation to use a jury rigged rudder, i.e. the rudder is critically damaged, the CoE will be much changed, to the point of instability.

I doubt your average spinnaker pole/washboard would be able to control the boat,

[/ QUOTE ]

Tiller to stock broke so had no steering, rigged spinnaker pole with the seat of an old bosun's chair to the pole with 2 'U' bolts.

Continued sailing to home port some 80 NM. No problems tacking and holding a good line.

If you have any doubts about any emergency steering system/s for your yacht you should try some out by rigging some and letting go the tiller.

The bucket or drogue can work but will slow you down a lot more than other methods and not easy to control if fine tuning.

Hope this helps.

Avagoodweekend......
 
I agree sawdog i amgoing to try out sea anchor. bucket or drogue to see what happens, i will try an oar also and see how she responds

Thanks all i like to have a backup if it is at all possible.

Cannon
 
[ QUOTE ]
Rather than slagging off Morgana's efforts ..

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't see how any of the responses to Morgana can be described as "slagging off".

All I am trying to point out [politely, I hoped!] is that for his experiment to really prove anything, he would have first to remove his boat's rudder [which is not very practical]. Whilst it remains in place it is contributing to the directional stability of the boat, especially in a modern boat with a short fin keel and a spade rudder with no skeg.

In a boat like mine, with her long keel and small rudder, I would have a much better chance steering her without a rudder than would someone with a boat like a Legend. I also have less chance of it being broken off. The penalty I pay for that is a slower response to the helm, and loss of speed due to greater wetted area. [Not to mention the impossibility of steering astern /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif]

But, as you say, it's worth thinking about the problem and trying to decide what you could do if it happened.
 
No, it wasn't taken by me as a 'slagging off' either, so no worry!

It was a useful and interesting discussion around the difference between easy calm 'test' conditions and 'sporting' conditions as may well be the case when needed for real...

I'll continue to develop plans and strategies, but never closed to some constructive input...
 
The Monitor people do a dedicated emergency rudder - more info here http://www.selfsteer.com/products/sos/index.php

While their 'equivalent' of the Hydrovane is the Autohelm windvane - more info here http://www.selfsteer.com/products/autohelm/index.php

I must admit to being biased in favour of a Hydrovane as a brilliant emergency rudder (we have one).
The actual rudder size is relatively small, but it is aerofoil shaped and very high aspect (ie the ratio of the span to the chord) which improves the efficiency.
Hence I am thinking that rather than having an oar blade trailing almost horizontally behind the boat (VERY low aspect ratio!), if it could somehow be attached in a vertical fashion like the emergency rudder produced by the Monitor folk, then it would be hugely more efficient.
 
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