I recently went on my annual sailing fall trip. It was scheduled for last Sunday - Wednesday. Why did I end up back at the marina on Sunday night when I should have been sailing?
On Sunday afternoon after a gorgeous day of sailing, my rudder fell off the 34' Hunter I had chartered. I was sitting next to the helm and the helmsman said "We've lost our rudder." I calmly said it would come back, because it looked like we were weather clocking. I then blathered about possible putting a reef in since there was so much wind. Then, to get my attention, the helmsman pointed at the rudder floating in the water and said "no we lost the rudder." Seeing the rudder got my attention quickly. The rudder floated away quite quickly. We were in 212' of water off the tip of Michigan Island. Luckily, there were no resultant leaks from the missing rudder. We laid a beam in the 6-8' swells that developed after the rudder left our possession. It took well over an hour for help to arrive. Luckily, the nearest lee shore was in Canada. Quite likely we had enough food to get there. We were greeted with a very small, but powerful twin engine tow boat from the Marina. Towing felt a bit like slalom water skiing through the water - but without the fun. The tow line chafed and snapped once. We anchored which was a delightful respite despite the fact that we were exposed to the wind and now way too close too a lee shore for my comfort. The crew made a better makeshift bridle for towing from lines on board and we continued. After a hour or two so of 'crack the whip' towing at 3 knots the waves calmed. We rafted up together with the tow boat for the next 3+ hours back to the marina sans the slalom effect. I suppose in retrospect we could have tried to sail, steering only with sails. I'm not sure if we could have kept a course, but it would have been smoother than lying a beam in the swells. The marina replaced our boat with a newer and nicer vessel and we went back out in the morning. They did an amazing job with a hard tow. I really appreciate their willingness to put themselves on the line to rescue us and the boat. All my crew did their jobs and kept their heads throughout. Luckily, no one got sick either. So I broke a boat in two pieces but saved the larger piece :)
On Sunday afternoon after a gorgeous day of sailing, my rudder fell off the 34' Hunter I had chartered. I was sitting next to the helm and the helmsman said "We've lost our rudder." I calmly said it would come back, because it looked like we were weather clocking. I then blathered about possible putting a reef in since there was so much wind. Then, to get my attention, the helmsman pointed at the rudder floating in the water and said "no we lost the rudder." Seeing the rudder got my attention quickly. The rudder floated away quite quickly. We were in 212' of water off the tip of Michigan Island. Luckily, there were no resultant leaks from the missing rudder. We laid a beam in the 6-8' swells that developed after the rudder left our possession. It took well over an hour for help to arrive. Luckily, the nearest lee shore was in Canada. Quite likely we had enough food to get there. We were greeted with a very small, but powerful twin engine tow boat from the Marina. Towing felt a bit like slalom water skiing through the water - but without the fun. The tow line chafed and snapped once. We anchored which was a delightful respite despite the fact that we were exposed to the wind and now way too close too a lee shore for my comfort. The crew made a better makeshift bridle for towing from lines on board and we continued. After a hour or two so of 'crack the whip' towing at 3 knots the waves calmed. We rafted up together with the tow boat for the next 3+ hours back to the marina sans the slalom effect. I suppose in retrospect we could have tried to sail, steering only with sails. I'm not sure if we could have kept a course, but it would have been smoother than lying a beam in the swells. The marina replaced our boat with a newer and nicer vessel and we went back out in the morning. They did an amazing job with a hard tow. I really appreciate their willingness to put themselves on the line to rescue us and the boat. All my crew did their jobs and kept their heads throughout. Luckily, no one got sick either. So I broke a boat in two pieces but saved the larger piece :)
