Jury rig steering

[25931]

On a modern yacht steering is something that we take for granted although I remember two occasions in the '80s with different yachts when a steering cable came adrift but the rudder stock was equipped with a square head and a suitable steel bar but I've never experienced a rudder failure such as happened recently due to playful orcas causing the boats to be towed to safety. I don't know why their steering failed because the photos gave the impression that a chunk had been removed but the rudder was still in place but the cases caused me to think about some emergency system but I haven't come up with anything practical. I suppose that on smaller boats with auxiliary outboards there might be a chance. Remembering that the term starboard derived from steerboard gives food for thought - not all boats had rudders. Any suggestions ?

 

[prv]

All wheel-steered boats should have an emergency tiller in case of the cable problem you described (or similar for other kinds of linkages). But if the rudder itself is damaged - without punching a hole in the hull in the same event - then something else would be wanted.

I chartered a boat once which had a large plywood paddle-blade stowed on the back of a locker door, with fittings to mount it onto the spinnaker pole to make a giant oar. I suppose you could try to improvise something similar with a bunk-board or door. Winching a bucket from one side of the stern to the other is sometimes suggested, though every report of doing so seems to conclude with "but it didn't really work".

A lot of this stuff is ancestral memories from long-keeled boats; I suspect a modern shallow-bodied fin-keeled yacht would really struggle on most points of sail without the lateral resistance of the rudder.

Pete

 

[Deleted member 36384]

A couple of brackets on the stern to hold an emergency rudder that can drop in, with a suitable tiller extension shaped to go round the back stay. The emergency rudder can just be a bit of flat steel. The pivots can just be bits of tube, nothing fancy. I think most spinnaker pole and cabin sole or heads door solutions are bound to fail, equally a bucket from the quarter, my point being it needs some thought and would have to be boat shape specific e.g. sugar scoop, flat, slanted, curved stern.

 

[roaringgirl]

Having had a rudder (not steering cable) failure, mid ocean, I can tell you that spinnaker pole, head door and bucket solutions do *not* work on modern shallow hulled, short keel boats.

 

[thinwater]

Practice steering with a drogue. If you don't have one, it can be jury rigged with fenders and an anchor in minutes. A skill every sailor should have.

jury rigged steering drogue

I bent a rudder once... but cats come with on-line spares! I just disconnected the crossbar (10 minutes) and finished the cruise, without interruption.

 

[roaringgirl]

Practice steering with a drogue. If you don't have one, it can be jury rigged with fenders and an anchor in minutes. A skill every sailor should have.

jury rigged steering drogue

I bent a rudder once... but cats come with on-line spares! I just disconnected the crossbar (10 minutes) and finished the cruise, without interruption.

The jury rig above relies on steering via the winches. We tried a few different setups using the winches. The trouble was that a sloop with a short fin and spade underwater profile has very little directional stability without the rudder and needs constant correction. We couldn't adjust the steering via the winches quickly enough in the swell to keep us going vaguely in the right direction.

The incident was on another boat, before I had my own. On ours we have a Hydrovane, so we have a spare rudder.

 

[Rappey]

Practice steering with a drogue.

Ive never tried it but would imagine you would be exhausted in no time trying to control a boat in rough seas ?

 

[Rappey]

Having had a rudder (not steering cable) failure, mid ocean,

how did you resolve the problem?

 

[fisherman]

when my rudder came adrift from the shaft, I towed a round fender off the end of a boom swung out stbd forward, level with the stern so I could haul it in and out. But that's a heavy boat with plenty of grip in the water, and known to screw to port.

 

[thinwater]

Ive never tried it but would imagine you would be exhausted in no time trying to control a boat in rough seas ?

With multihulls you have a lot of beam, so it works pretty well.

It also depends on the course. broad reaching is easy, beam reaching less so.

I'm not sayin' it's the best way. But it is one to have in your bag of tricks. For example, If you but a rudder in a gale, rigging a jury rudder may be wholy unsafe and impractical. The jury system I describe can hold you on a reach while the storm subsides. Also, rigging a jury rudder while the boat is rolling aimlessly is a nightmare. Rig the drogue and head off on a broad reach with only genoa. Now the boat is rolling less and you can get to work fixing things.

Also, the drogue works better if you assist with some engine to make the pull steady. Just low revs.

Finally, it makes a big difference how it is rigged. There is no substitute for reading up, practicing, and mastering all of the adjustments (you adjust the drag and the angle). My first attempts were ugly, but now I'm good at it.

 

[William_H]

Just thinking about losing a rudder in mid ocean gives me the horrors. I would think a long oar type arrangement would be pretty hopeless with the blade so far away from the fulcrum. What would be ideal is a emergency rudder attached to the transom looking much like a dinghy rudder. A blade that is deep and relatively short in chord tucked close to or under the pivot points. Tiller on top of course.
What would be essential is a method of attaching the new rudder to the pintles from above so you can slide it down in to place. You could never get a bottom pintle aligned in a sea way leaning over the stern.
The size and shape of the new rudder would be a compromise. Area must be big enough to provide adequate control and lateral resistance but larger means must be stronger. Short chord means less tiller loads but deeper means greater loads on bottom pintle.
Re using an oar. My little boat has a swing rudder. So on occasions I have by accident tried to sail it with rudder swung aft and up somewhat resembling the steering oar. Tiller loads are horrendous (threatening to snap tiller) and boat handling is terrible. ol'wiill

 

[Neeves]

With multihulls it is so much easier. You have 2 rudders and if one become inoperative, once in 20 years, you simply disengage that rudder (though you need to support the cross beam when you disconnect). We have had cables break, twice in 20 years, our autopilot drives the rudders independent of the wheel - so there is no steering loss. For close quarter manoeuvring you have two propellors a long way apart - you don't need rudders at all. You can help balance the yacht when under sail using one engine if you have a long passage ahead.

A drogue will work on a multihull as you can set the drogue on one transom or the other, rather than near centre as on a yacht.

We know all of this works - we have done it in anger.

When we raced, China Sea Race approx 500nm offshore, we drilled one of the cabin sole boards to take 2 'U bolts that fitted the spinnaker pole. The pole was lashed to the transom, between 2 stern cleats, and controlled using the sheet winches, worked very well - but of less value in tight locations (you should be able to arrange a tow in tight locations)). Part of scrutineering was demonstrating the system worked. You need to run sheets to the board as it inevitably twists under the pressures - so you need sheets to adjust the pole itself and other sheets to keep the replacement rudder blade (the cabin sole) 'vertical' on the pole. Its really crude but will point you 'roughly' in the right direction.

In a yacht today - I would not drill a cabin sole board but have a dedicated board pre drilled with 'U' bolts that would fit the spinnaker pole. The board could be the top of your workbench (which every long distance sailor has). You need reinforcing for the board where you bolt. I'd use the pole and board to get roughly where I wanted to go. I'd then fine tune the steering with a drogue and the pole/board. Using a drogue is going to prolong the agony (it will slow you down) and need to monitor for too long (you will be exhausted). You could of course have 'U' bolts on the transom to which a complete rudder could be attached - but as rudder failure is very uncommon - I'd stick with Mssrs Heath and Robinson.

If you suffered an orca attack they might just break the blade but they could bend (stainless) or break (glass or carbon) the stock. Then though the only damage looks loss of part of the blade a bent or damaged shaft would or could make the rudder inoperative and very difficult to repair at sea. We bent a stainless stock (hit something large and unforgiving at speed) such that the rudder would simply not turn. We went to shelter (using the 2 engines to steer), dropped the rudder (when you drop it you need to ensure you do not drop it , took the rudder ashore and bent it straight enough such that it was not locked at an angle using branches of trees to bend it 'roughly' straight. We then sailed 1000nm back home (using the good rudder), ordered a new rudder and stock (then made in carbon)

Jonathan

 

[DownWest]

Musing on this:
About dropping an emergency rudder on pintals at sea. How about a cassette type? Robust frame with a drop in blade. Bit easier to store two bits and fitting the cassette would be managable in rough conditions. As for back stay/tiller, it could be a bit offset.
Think I mentioned this before. Our company yacht used to come in for me to sort out each winter. They had a hydraulic leak in the steering ram and were losing oil, topped it up, but were running out of spare, so got the big emergency tiller tiller out and dropped it overboard! They just made it using the hand held autopilot control as the pump was the lowest partof the system after the two helms ran out. Next would have been with the twin engines. Long keel and heavy, 35 ton, so prob would have managed.

 

[fisherman]

The bottom pintle has to be long enough, above w/l, and engage before the top one.

 

[pandos]

I have often thought a rudder on a frame which would sit on the stern and be held in place with ratchet straps taken forward under the hull to the midship cleats would be a usable solution...

 

[dunedin]

Just shows that sometimes modern race boats have the best ideas - two rudders mounted on the transom, with a “fuse“to allow them to lift if hit something. No single point of failure, and easily replaced at sea.

For aged cruising boats, the big issue with a major rudder damage may not be the loss of steering, per se, but if the rudder is jammed over to one side (eg by collision or Orca damage) this can prevent any other auxiliary steering from working, causing the boat to only go round and round in circles. This has been the cause of boat abandonments in the past.

 

[paulajayne]

Drill hole at top rear of rudder and in an emergency run a line port and starboard through it.

 

[graham]

I remember how dificult it was hanging over the back of sailing dinghys trying to slot the rudder onto its pins .

If i was making an emergency rudder i would make a frame type rudder stock that could be hung on the pintles and then have a seperate blade slid down through it.

 

[Stemar]

What about having an outboard bracket on the stern and an emergency steering system that would clamp to it just like an OB? A bonus would be that you could put the flubber's OB to give you a bit of power to get into port should the prop be damaged in the same incident.

I'm convinced that it would work on a smaller boat, but probably less well on a 45 footer

 

[fisherman]

I remember how dificult it was hanging over the back of sailing dinghys trying to slot the rudder onto its pins .

If i was making an emergency rudder i would make a frame type rudder stock that could be hung on the pintles and then have a seperate blade slid down through it.

Local fishing boats launched off the beach, 26ft, 3t, had the rudder shipped every time. The long lower pintle enabled the rudder gudgeon to be engaged above w/l, then the top pintle on the rudder dropped into the sternpost gudgeon the long pin doesn't need to be over robust, as the rudder sits at the bottom on the transom gudgeon fitting in operation.
All depends on having a transom, though.
A drogue off a boom up for'd has a considerable mechanical advantage, while the line to bring it in or out at the stern is easily operated. Two could be used with a line across from one to the other, just passed across the stern to let one in, one out. I found it very sensitive, kept a turn on a cleat.