Making Passage w/o a Rudder

[klem]

Sorry for joining the thread late but here is my input.

I would opt for trying to steer using weight and sail trim while figuring out how to improvise a rudder for use once you are close to land. Loosing a rudder completely will often not allow a boat to be sailed well with balancing sails alone because the center of lateral resistance is moved ahead significantly. This makes the boat want to round up into the wind. Some boats can be sailed this way with the jib and a very small main but some cannot. Moving significant weight aft in the boat can help a lot as well as moving all weight to windward.

I really enjoy sailing small boats with the rudder lashed midships. With some practice, you can actually tack most boats reliably like this. It becomes a lot more difficult to sail them though if you remove the rudder because the balance of the center of lateral resistance and heeling force is disrupted.

[snb25]

well as i understand a spare paddle,,,,ore must be kept t onboard so i would go the big canoe method for awhile with some power or wind could tiresome

[sigmasailor]

Originally Posted by Faster

We once satisfied a race safety committee for an overnight off-season race with an "Emergency rudder" that consisted of a pre-drilled bunkboard, a couple of Ubolts and the Spinn pole. It was never put to the test (thankfully) and to be honest I doubt it would have lasted long. The forces on the rudders of many boats are considerable (who hasn't leaned into the wheel or tiller as the weather helm loads up in a puff) and to expect some cobbled-together contraption to work long term is a bit naive.

The mentioned contraption is the standard equipment readily available on all SIGMA 33 OOD's; even completely in line with the class rules. Instead of u-bolts I had a couple of long jubilee clips (the clamps used to tighten cooling water conduits to engines). I never had to used it but did practice with sail trim to steer the boat. If the rig is properly set up is is truly amazing what you can achieve with just the sails. I have to admit I never tried this in bad weather.

[Zanshin]

I lost my rudder at sea with a significant swell and gusty BFT 4-5 winds in a Jeanneau 43DS and found that the fin-keeled boat did not self-steer under sail at all, each wave and windspeed shift would change the dynamic balance sufficiently to make even approximately keeping a heading impossible.

[wind_magic]

Originally Posted by Zanshin

I lost my rudder at sea with a significant swell and gusty BFT 4-5 winds in a Jeanneau 43DS and found that the fin-keeled boat did not self-steer under sail at all, each wave and windspeed shift would change the dynamic balance sufficiently to make even approximately keeping a heading impossible.

So what did you end up doing, Zanshin ? You can't just leave it at that!

[Zanshin]

I posted some details here after it happened and didn't want to repeat myself. I found the boat unsteerable and trailing warps (and pails) while motoring didn't keep me going where I wanted to either. In the end I drifted over a 70 foot deep shoaling area and dropped the hook and rather than remove an inner door on the boat and rig a starboard or similar rudder system I was able to use VHF to arrange a tow. Unfortunately, this coincided with another boat mayday situation with a child lost overboard and as I was in no danger there were no resources free for a day. It was rather uncomfortable to be at anchor in the open water, but that was all. The tow (to Virgin Gorda) showed how unstable fin-keeled boats are without the balance of a ruuder - despite dragging all of my unused spare line and docking lines and buckets and dinghy off the aft end of the boat it still swung around 180 degrees during the tow.

[Boasun]

When I taught sailing at San Diego Naval Yacht Club, when the students advanced from Sabots to Catalina 15s, part of the course was sailing without a rudder. It was only for about a quarter hour per student. But with 2 or 3 students (crowded) in the boat they experienced overall a longer time. It is a matter of balancing your sails and movable weights in the boat.
Now this should be practiced if you can ship your rudder and give it a try. Have fun

[dub420sailor]

I know it isn't too technical, but I liked this video YouTube - Sailing: Steering a sailboat with the main sail ALONE! I'm guessing it works better on a well balanced boat though, and I'm sure that when no rudder is attached that changes things a bit.

[sailingdog]

Dub420—

I'd highly recommend those videos as a good friend of mine made them. He used to be an active member here but is generally only over at the forum he started a couple of years ago... Anything Sailing Forum. I recommend you go visit.

[dub420sailor]

Awesome web site, thanks! He has some really great videos.

Andy