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I used to have lots of problems with my rudder losing steering power on my 2008 AI. Once or twice the pin snapped, but usually the rudder just seemed very underpowered for large winds. I had been dealing with that by reefing the sail in higher winds, then I realized that if I leaned far out to reduce heeling, I could keep more of the rudder in the water and retain rudder power even in gusts. So I stopped reefing the sail whenever the winds began to build.
Well, today I almost got into trouble doing this. I was out on Lake Superior in a wind advisory and small craft advisory, figuring that I'd be ok because I was staying in a small, protected bay where I often sail. I had a drysuit on (even though air temps were 78, water temps are in the 40s), a VHF, signal light, and the usual safety immersion gear. I was staying close to shore--a couple hundred yards out, perhaps, but we had strong offshore winds.
A gust snapped the rudder pin (the old black pin; I did get the gray replacements, but I hadn't changed them yet, figuring I'd wait until my black one bent). I knew the routine, because I've lost rudder control often enough, so I immediately furled the sail in, grabbed the paddle to use as my rudder, and began pedaling in to the beach to replace the pin. I wasn't worried until I realized the winds had increased quite a bit and were blowing me out into the open lake far faster than I could pedal, and my paddle wasn't working at all as a rudder in these winds.
Well, well, well. If I pedalled as hard as I could and ruddered as hard as I could with the paddle, I could just stay in place. The moment I stopped doing either one to adjust something, I got blown further out to sea. I did stop for a moment to take that last 5 inches of sail all the way in, and that helped a bit. I tried different ways of ruddering, and different positions of the daggerboard, and finally I managed to get the boat to swing a bit into the wind. I didn't want to try and fit in a new rudder pin, given the conditions--I was afraid that I'd probably fail, and end up miles out to sea in the attempt.
It took almost an hour to get in the last 100 yards. I'd be almost to the point where I could hop out and pull the boat in safely, and then another gust would come up and I'd get pushed out again. By the time I landed, I was wiped out, to put it mildly. I never felt that I was in any real danger, because the Coast Guard boat was in the marina a couple miles away, and I had immersion gear on and a VHF on my pfd. But it was a sobering realization that relying on the paddle as a rudder in gusty offshore winds is not a great idea.
The main lesson I learned: don't go out alone in such conditions, particularly with an offshore wind. These offshore winds are our favorite time to sail because it's a lot easier to launch and land without dealing with surf on the long sand bars. But it finally occurred to me that that isn't worth the greater risks of losing control. I had thought that staying close to the beach in a protected bay would be safe, but I hadn't realized how quickly you can get pushed beyond the range of a safe return. I did have a friend on the beach, but she didn't realize that I was having difficulties, so she wandered back to her house for a cup of coffee.
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