Slaughter wrote:
I really like the new rudder design mainly for sailing around the local sand islands. As I'm approaching them, I remove the dagger and uncleat the rudder line so that it's free to raise if it hits any sand. If it does hit, I then cleat the line so that the rudder is just in the water, probably between 10-30 degrees off horizontal, and then start to dolly step with the drive. Mind you, I've never done this in a 30 knot wind
I've tried something similar, releasing the rudder then hooning around sailing right up onto the beach.
Chekika wrote:
I've been reading this when I realized this happened to me a couple years ago. The winds were probably about mid 20 mph. I had just launched in a shallow bay. The channel thru the bay required that I head out on a starboard tack, and then tack across the wind. I was under full sail. Even with pedaling, it was like hitting a wall, and the bow would go no further. I had just launched and finally got pushed back to where I had started. Embarrassing because there was another group of campers there, and I'm sure they were laughing at my struggles, although one fellow came over and held my boat momentarily. It then occurred to me to reduce the sail; after which, I had no problem tacking across the wind.
Keith
Was it with the old rudder or the new one Keith? I found that the more I furled the sail, the worse it got.