"Consider this yet another recommendation for taping every bloody split ring on
the boat!"
Having recently lost the mast of my 28ft trimaran over the side by not doing
this simple precaution I would thoroughly recommend it.
" Remember, the centerboard is going to hit any obstacles in the water before
the rudder. The one designed failure point that I do believe in is the tiller.
If you fall on it, it should break before the transom bar and before you tear
out the lower gudgeon. "
The problem that is very common here in Australia is that boats are launched
and retrieved from concrete ramps which need to be approached with the board up
leaving the rudder as the exposed foil. Personally I would prefer to have
something in place that means if I stuff up that the transom isn't ripped out
of the boat. I personally wish that if we could change anything about the
design that we could inset the transom piece further so the aft edge of the
hull could be utilised as a sacrificial area for mounting the rudder.
----- Original Message ----
From: Ron Radko <ron_radko@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: swiftsolo@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, 11 September, 2007 3:23:06 AM
Subject: RE: Rudder rip-off and other advice for builders
Dave,
Your failure looks suspiciously like what happened on my musto when I lost the
retaining ring for the rudder pin. The rudder popped off of the lower gudgeon
and bent the pintle almost exactly what you are showing. It also broke the
aluminum rudder cassette where the pintle went through it.
In my case, there was no problem with the design, it was a dumb user error by
not taping the retaining clip for the rudder pintle.
Consider this yet another recommendation for taping every bloody split ring on
the boat!
ROn
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