Consequences of shortening rudder

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by MGRodems

Resolution:

Here is what I did. I cut 3" off the bottom of the rudder (less than 4% of the surface area). It was damaged a bit from a bounce the prior year (in my very shallow slip), so I needed to do some repair work. I sealed it and launched this past spring. We took a 1,500 mile trip through the Great Lakes and I did not notice any adverse effects on control or steering whether by hand or using the autopilot. I feel I will have a slightly better chance of keeping the rudder free when the keel is on the bottom.

I did not touch bottom this year, but when we get off the Greast Lakes next year we most likely will. Still haven't experienced getting off a grounding with a wing keel.

Mike, thanks for the followup, and glad to hear that your mods did not have any dire effects such as the pundits were predicting. Hope you have a good run in the ditch and the other skinny places into which you venture.

Jim

[BillKny]

I think your priorities are wacky.

You have a boat that is new to you, you don't have a lot of experience with sailing it yet to know it's strong and weak points, and yet you are already talking about major surgery that is (at best) not going to improve its sailing ability, but to fix a completely theoretical problem for those few times you go aground?

You draw 4'11" With a little bit of care and conservative sailing, why are you expecting to run aground so often it is a major problem?

For the money it would cost you to haul the boat and do a proper job modifying the rudder you could buy 10 years of membership in TowBoatUS. They pull you off in the very unlikely event you get so stuck in the mud you can't get off yourself.

Currently sailing the Chesapeake with 6'6" draft, so not feeling very empathetic!

[jtsailjt]

3” seems so minor that I’m not surprised steering wasn’t affected. It may prove to have been a very good decision by decreasing the possibility of structural damage of the rudder if you go aground in a area where the bottom is very flat such as the Bahamas. All of my boats have had rudders that had less draft than the keel so I found it unusual that yours had equal draft prior to your mod.

I’ve never had a winged keel but it seems to me that you’ll be well served by simply having patience and waiting for the tide to rise a bit as your primary strategy for getting unstuck. I personally know of one sailboat that went aground and was holed and had cleats ripped right out of the deck by a well intended commercial tow boat, so when the tide came up it sunk. I was recently reminded of it when touring a friends island with him because he’s a little irritated that the cabin top washed ashore and is embedded in one of his beaches. Also, always being aware of the tide where you are and being particularly careful about the possibility of going aground near high tide. Someone earlier in the thread mentioned it and I think it’s true that shallow draft boats go aground more than deep draft boats do because their skippers tend to take more chances in shallow areas. But you’ve probably already considered all that.

Congrats on completing your rudder mod and I hope you enjoy your exploration of shallow areas. One last lesson learned by a good friend coming up the inland waterway in his Baba 35 who went aground in mud that had shifted in recent storms. Unfortunately it happened on an outgoing tide so he was stuck for several hours. When his boat began to lay down it was towards the channel and that meant that wakes from every passing boat were washing up into his cockpit but if he’d taken care to make sure the boat layed down facing towards land he’d have been much less affected by wakes and better off. Possibly in a similar situation your boat with its winged keel would be well enough balanced so it would stand upright while you waited for high tide to float you off but it’s just something else to think about when you first go aground and the possibility that you may be stuck for several hours is becoming a possibility.

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by BillKny

I think your priorities are wacky.



You have a boat that is new to you, you don't have a lot of experience with sailing it yet to know it's strong and weak points, and yet you are already talking about major surgery that is (at best) not going to improve its sailing ability, but to fix a completely theoretical problem for those few times you go aground?



You draw 4'11" With a little bit of care and conservative sailing, why are you expecting to run aground so often it is a major problem?



For the money it would cost you to haul the boat and do a proper job modifying the rudder you could buy 10 years of membership in TowBoatUS. They pull you off in the very unlikely event you get so stuck in the mud you can't get off yourself.



Currently sailing the Chesapeake with 6'6" draft, so not feeling very empathetic!

I think that very few who have sailed the Bahamas managed to not touch bottom at least once so I wouldn’t really call it much of a far fetched theory that it’ll happen to him too.

I don’t think removing 3” of foam and fiberglass is terribly major surgery or is likely to have any discernible effect on boat handling.

As long as he stays where you are in the Chesapeake or the inland waterway, what you say about Towboat is correct, but once in the Bahamas many locations don’t have towing services available for any price, so I think he’s wise to be considering how he’s going to handle a nearly inevitable grounding before it occurs so he’ll already have a plan in mind other than to call (what cell coverage?) for a tow. It’s good seamanship to do so.