Your are right. It is extremely difficult to deploy an effective emergency rudder offshore in a seaway. You can come up with all sorts of clever solutions but a cassette mount on the transom with a blade stored inside the boat is the best way to go IMO. You punch the damaged rudder out through the bottom (you hope) and slide the blade into the cassette, set up your steering lines and you are in business. Not racing business, but certainly capable of getting into a safe harbor.
I never anticipated taking the OEM rudder off shore with me. There were several qualifying ocean races for the SHTP. The singlehanded Farallons (50NM) and the LongPac (400NM). The Longpac required an emergency rudder. I borrowed a carbon fiber cassette rudder system from one of my SSS colleagues for that race and used it for the first Transpac as well. I bought my own erud of approx the same design for the second transpac I participated in.
But, because I had never exposed the boat to tough offshore conditions and given the guy was selling the rudder for $500, I decided it would be wise to buy it and have it available should I damage or loose my primary rudder prior to the SHTP. That way I would avoid a lengthy wait for a replacement and potentially miss the race. At my age it was kind of a twice in a lifetime deal so I really did not want to miss my opportunity to participate. And what a superb adventure it turned out to be!
[quote=walterg post_id=52802 time=1596658502 user_id=5996]
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the interesting info…from the few drawings or other info I have been able to track down, the F28 rudder shares the same rudderstock dimensions, with three 3" OD SS collars that go through the upper and lower bearings, and the middle collar that attaches to the steering quadrant. The overall shaft length is about 39", the width of the rudder from the cutout for the skeg to the trailing edge is 17-3/4", and the width at the bottom is 10-5/8". The overall length of the rudder proper exclusive of the shaft is 54-1/4". If you actually have a F28 and not a F30 rudder on hand, it might help Chris but not me as I have already committed to having a replacement built, despite the fact that I have neither adequate insurance or extra boat bucks. Nevertheless, I have to get her home somehow.
Thinking about the idea of bringing a spare rudder offshore…and wondering how one could install it? You would need to get the old rudderstock out, which shouldn’t be that hard, but it would be a trick to get in the water and re-install the replacement. When my rudderless boat was towed in, an old-timer told me how you could use a bucket towed astern and tied to your winches to keep steering with a lost rudder.
Walter
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Walter,
Re the rudder I have, it sounds pretty close. We’ll see if Chris is interested. If so I can do more measurements,. etc.
I envy you that experience Mike! The SHTP has been a lifelong dream of mine. Not likely to happen any more but I can still imagine what a thrill it must have been.
Thanks so much for your information Mike and Walter. It’s good to hear that the stock is the same diameter! My boatyard has been doing their magic to look at the options for custom fabrication. We may be going with a brand new custom rudder, but I haven’t spoken with the adjuster yet (and hoping I have better luck than Walter). Depending on how the insurance pans out, I might be in touch with you Mike. At least we got 20 days in this season before it happened. I’ve attached photos in case anybody is interested. The stock stub looks different from Walter’s.
First pics of my new rudder under construction. This is after they have built the carbon post and milled the foam, in preparation for vacuum-bagging the skins on.
CCI is doing the build with Phil (Phil’s Foils) doing the design. Although I had thought that the original rudderstock was a FRP/carbon composite, Phil told me that there was no carbon in mine, just FRP. So the new carbon stock should be much stronger than the original. I’d hate to have to go through this again in another 30 years.
Well my F28 rudder replacement post comes to an end. Drilled the mounting holes and applied some bottom paint:
Installed and re-launched after 72 days on the hard:
Fit is very good and CCI did a great job, especially with the lack of dimensional info that I was able to provide them with. Over the winter I’ll do a little fairing around the skeg but otherwise it’s a perfect fit and she sails great. @bad, the bushings seem fine, no play that I can feel in them so I’m going to leave them as is.
What was the final total cost and did insurance cover it ? Mine was about $12,500 total including installation and shipping. State Farm paid for it all.
The rudder was a little under $5K all in with shipping duty, etc. I did all of the installation work myself. The total cost to me of the incident including towing, storage, haulout and relaunch, etc. was about $7500.
Insurance (Geico/Boat US) paid out $2700 to me.
I’m not very knowledgeable about insurance but I think that the main difference between my rudder loss and yours, was that yours happened much earlier in the life of your boat. The insurance company sent out a surveyor and accepted all of my expenses, but my policy has a 80% deductible based on the age of the boat.
To be honest, I was happy to get anything from them. I really only have insurance to cover liability I might incur from an accident, sinking etc. and didn’t have any expectations that I would get the money to put a $15K rudder into what is now a $15K boat.
The insurance payout you got is because of a Boat US policy change, after they switched underwriting to Geico a few years back. It’s in the policy language, but long time customers with older boats were not notified of this significant change- unless of course they read their policies, which we all should do. A representative confirmed that they will now only cover repair bills subject to a depreciation schedule- after 20 years they will pay 10% less of any repair claims per year for every year of the boat’s age, and at 28 and over they will cover a maximum of 20% of the cost of any repairs, less the dedcutible.
So if you have an older boat insured with Boat US, you effectively have only liability coverage and coverage for a total loss. It matters not if your boat has just been completely updated and restored, the only factor is the age of the hull. I get depreciation of things like sails, upholstery, outboards, and electronics, but to my mind it doesn’t entirely make sense for cruising sailboats.
It might be OK with you if the boat is not very valuable, but as the owner of an older, but still valuable boat I dropped Boat US/ Geico as soon as I clarified this policy with Boat US. I confirmed with them that if my boat suffered significant damage, but short of a total loss, the most they would pay would be 20% of the cost of repairs, less my deductible. I believe they have since added the possibility of a rider that will increase older boat coverage to a limited extent.
I went with State Farm, which had better coverage at almost half the price. State Farm- and other insurance companies so far as I could tell- would pay for the repair, less deductible, so long as it was less than the agreed value of the boat.
