srm wrote:
For anyone who thinks having a break-away rudder system is a good idea, I'd recommend you take your boat to a lake on a light wind day, sail out to the middle and pull out one of the rudder pins and then try sailing back to shore. Now imagine trying to do that in the ocean when it's blowing 20.
sm
Agree 1000% My first summer on an old H14 I had this happen.. my daughter was 8-9 years old, we were on an inland lake with it blowing 20+. Just ripping across the lake and something gave.. Not sure what I hit, but apparently those pins get old and brittle... Also the boat had the "old" fancy tiller connection system which was more like a ball joint, and not easily disassembled.. (with H20 connectors this would have been no big deal) The leeward pin just snapped.. So with it howling (remember 220lb guy on H14 with kid) I wrestle the tiller crossbar and rudder assembly onto the tramp. Manage with no easy effort to break that setup free of the starboard tiller/rudder assembly.... Cool.. Now I have one rudder.. The starboard one.. The problem was that I needed to be on a port tack, and that wasn't happening with me on the leeward side of the boat in those conditions.. So I sailed to the other side of the lake, found a suitable tree branch, lashed to to the tiller and back across the lake we went.
My daughter still talks about "Survivor: Longview lake".
Truth be told, yeah.. use those pins.. The day didn't go as planned.. but we had a lot of fun