I took the boat out for its first sail this year and lost the rudder.

Do you guys think this is reparable or am I buying a new boat? It’d be a shame to lose her over something so stupid

      • Koopa_Khan@lemmy.worldOP
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        19 days ago

        This happened mid sail, but we were fortunate enough to get a tow back to the dock and on a lift

        I’m glad it was this and not the mast

          • Koopa_Khan@lemmy.worldOP
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            19 days ago

            I wish I could tell you.

            My best guess is that the pin bounced out when i was trying to help my wife uncleat the jib and the pressure just ripped the rudder right off. It was just a perfect storm of a large wind gust, waves, and a hardware failure

            • Paragone@lemmy.world
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              19 days ago

              You forgot too-flimsy engineering for the conditions.

              c a marchaj & Dave Gerr both spoke against too-flimsy engineering, & the industry generally doesn’t care ( boats which disappear don’t make headlines: only ones noticed to be disappearing do, right? )

              That boat needs to, if fixed, NEVER go into conditions as rough as what it was in.

              It may well have been oversold/under-engineered for what the marketing said it was for.

              Please consider investing in both Dave Gerr’s “Elements of Boat Strength” & a book named “Surveying Yachts And Small Craft”,

              and then earn enough understanding to figure out how sound your boat is.

              Those 2 books cost drastically less than a new boat, & they’ll help you in any future boat-purchases you make, too.

              Warning, though: nearly no boats are up to Gerr’s scantlings ( thicknesses of different areas of a hull, for all who haven’t been dredged through boatish lingo before ).

              ( other authors worth investing-in: Nigel Calder & Tom Cunliffe )

              _ /\ _

    • Koopa_Khan@lemmy.worldOP
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      19 days ago

      No orcas but maybe some very aggressive large mouth bass lol.

      Glad to hear it might be repairable though. I spend god knows how long last month repairing hairline cracks in the hull, I’d at least like to do some sailing this season

  • riodoro1@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    Totally repairable. Surely its not cosmetic but you can fix much worse in fiberglass. Can you get a replacement rudder? The hull repair is one thing but fabricating a new rudder and tiller is another.

    • Koopa_Khan@lemmy.worldOP
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      19 days ago

      That’s a good question. I’m pretty sure I can, those I might try to fit a different style since the original set up wasn’t great

      If you were me, would you try to use the same wood that’s there or replace the whole structure?

      • riodoro1@lemmy.world
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        19 days ago

        I can hardly see the wood inside but if it’s dry, hard and not damaged by the rip out then why not. Shouldn’t be hard to bond a new panel to the wood and then laminate it to the rest of the structure. Was the rudder hinge bolted to this wood? Because if it was then i’m not sure how it could’ve ripped out so cleanly.

        • Koopa_Khan@lemmy.worldOP
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          19 days ago

          It’s hard to tell, but I’ll do some poking around today.

          The original hardware was drilled into the wood over the panel and sealed. The rudder had a pin that went through the mount and it’s own hardware. That pin likely bounced out and torqued the whole piece off.

          Thank you for the advice!

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    lost the rudder

    You need to retrace your steps, figure out where you last saw it, and look there.