Readymade back-up rudder

[Guest]

Does anyone have one ready if the worst happens ?

The girdlers may have time to knock one up when crossing oceans, but the rest of use coasters may need one pretty quick.

Would an old fashioned viking type 'starboard' be the easy option ?

What would be the minimum blade area required for a given length of boat ?

Thanks

 

[Gunfleet]

Above a certain class of boat in France it's compulsory (though usually ignored) to carry around a whopping great oar. Apparently skilful wagglers can get their 6 ton 30 foot long keelers across a river by this method or if the rudder breaks can steer by it. The French expression is, I believe, 'mon oeil'.

 

[johnsomerhausen]

Since my rudder shaft is only 28 mm diameter, which I consider marginal, i built an emergency rudder. When I bought the boat second-hand, therewre two fenderboards at the bottom of the cockpit locker (38 by 300 mm and 1200 mm long.
I used one as the lower portion of the rudder and made the upper portion of two layers of 19mm plywood. the upper one has the pintles already mounted on and two stainless plates with 8 bolts and nuts hold the contraption togetheer. The tiller is a pickaxe handle with a pretty big piece of oak epoxied and bolted to it, with a large hole to give it some movement acroos the backstay. The gudgeons are permanently fastened to the trnsom and a lead plate is fastened by wood screws to the lower portion to diminish the wood's buoyancy. Takes half an hour to assemble. Upon making a trial, I found the helm to be quite a bit heavier than with my balanced rudder and the minimum turning radius wass 10 boat lengths. Ah well, one can't have everything in life...

john

 

[spark]

JohnM and the French have the right idea. A sculling oar over the stern works as an emergency rudder, but it does have to be strongly made and mounted. The mount should be of the type that encapsulates the shaft of the oar with a slot at the top to allow the blade in and out and the oar should have a collar inboard of the mount to prevent losing the oar if it is let go. If your boat is well-balanced you'll find that you can make minor steering adjustments by merely twisting the oar. Having a sculling oar to hand is very handy for coming alongside if your engine isn't working. With practice you can get a 30' boat moving at a fair old lick and it is very easy to manoeuvre.

 

[spark]

oar design....

I have had success with long, narrow blades - I'd go for at least 4'. I find that a fairly steep angle to the water is good for sculling (c. 45 degrees?) but steering is better with the blade trailing more (c. 30 degrees?). Ideally the shaft/loom should be long enough for you to steer comfortably from the cockpit. Standing on the sterndeck for sculling isn't such a problem.

I have a vague recollection that I read about tis somewhere in the dim and distant. Possibly in a book by John Leather.

 

[PaulJ]

I would have thought that it should be possible to make a long oar that could double as a whisker pole....?

 

[peterb]

Most cruising boats carry a plank to be used with fenders when laying alongside a rough wall. If you can arrange suitable strong points for this to be fixed to the transom with about half the plank projecting below the hull, then you have the makings of a jury rudder.

 

[oldsaltoz]

G’day Vic,
We had a simple set up, 2 ‘U’ bolts that fixed a board to the spinnaker pole, another that clamped a rubber off an old ore around the pole and a board with a hole in it that was secured to to the rail over the stern. Worked like a dream in trials but never used due to breakdown.
Ok I have said my 2 bob’s worth, I hope this helps.

Avagoodweekend Old Salt Oz……

 

[AndrewB]

Ladder!

We carry a full sized aluminium ladder strapped along the stanchions. Something that came with the yacht - I would never have thought of it but it is a surprisingly useful bit of kit to have aboard.

As a rudder or sweep, we have a ply sheet (doubles as an emergency washboard) that can be easily fixed at the end. Not so much smaller than our real rudder, and with none of the torque of a spinnaker pole. A tiller can be lashed across the top end, to help the helmsman.

The ladder is also regularly used as a fender board (see Peterb's post); a rudimentary passurelle for stern-to moorings; and for climbing harbour walls, which we have learnt to manage even just floating alongside. This has proved invaluable in commercial harbours with no landing facilities for yachts (e.g. Bridgetown).

It could be cut to make an emergency spar (or two), though I've not worked out fittings for this.

 

[Guest]

If all fails ..... suspend a lump of the boom and swing out to side you want to turn towards ...... very crude but works.

Its easier than trying to lash something to a transom.

Other way is to have an oar that you can lash to a transom horse etc. ... small blade raked at an angle has large effect...