Replacing rudder downhaul line with boat in the water?

Zac Penn · Post by **Zac Penn** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 9:44 am

Went sailing over the weekend and ran over a line which raised the keel, and then released it, sending is smashing down and breaking the clamp that holds the cable to the winch, and then snapped the rudder downhaul line so my rudder is now floating and interferes with the outboard.

I was lucky enough for the keel cable to only fall down a couple inches inside the clear tube so i was able to pull it up and rescuer it, but I have no idea how to fix the rudder issue with the boat in the water.

Any advice is welcomed

Zac

EmergencyExit · Post by **EmergencyExit** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 11:47 am

Afraid the buoyancy of the rudder blade is going to be the problem for you. Getting it off should be easy enough, and dropping some new line down could be done; you could even drop a very long feeder down so you could attach the line line above water and pull it back thru.

But I have a feeling it is going to be a bear getting and keeping that rudder back under the stern with enough control to line everything back up...

Capt. Bondo · Post by **Capt. Bondo** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 12:20 pm

I think EE's got the plan for you but you may need to go swimming to help feed the rudder stem back up.

Zac Penn · Post by **Zac Penn** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 3:29 pm

adamh · Post by **adamh** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 8:14 pm

I have had my rudder off and replaced the lines on it. That is something I would not want to to do in the water no matter how warm it is.

Andiron120 · Post by **Andiron120** » Wed Dec 04, 2013 8:21 am

It could be done fairly easily with dive gear, not so much without, but still possible. I think I would take it to the ramp.

Zac Penn · Post by **Zac Penn** » Fri Dec 06, 2013 5:31 pm

Well I ended up with a pretty nice fix so we could get the boat down to the ramp and still use the tiller. I am a plastic fabricator so i have HDPE welding rod on a spool. I cut off a 10' section and fed it down the rudder post and waited for it to float up along side of the boat. If you don't remember I made a replacement rudder out of HDPE when i first got the boat and I had drilled a small hole at the very bottom that i could hook a shock cord to and keep it elevated. I attached a small line through that hole in the rudder and taped it to the HDPE welding rod and fed the line back up through the rudder post. I could then push the rudder down with a pole and tighten the line to keep it down. This allowed my dad and I to motor to the boat ramp and use the tiller to steer us instead of the outboard. We replaced the downhaul line in the parking lot and then had a very nice sail back to the dock where hopefully she will stay without more issues

Zac

astrorad · Post by **astrorad** » Sat Dec 07, 2013 2:36 pm

Great idea Zac...necessity is the Mother of....yada yada!!!

EmergencyExit · Post by **EmergencyExit** » Tue Dec 10, 2013 7:08 am

Zac Penn wrote:Well I ended up with a pretty nice fix so we could get the boat down to the ramp and still use the tiller.
Zac

Didn't think about you trying to keep rudder down while motoring to dock until I read this, duh on my part - Had the same issue once on EE, so I'll add what we did so folks have a couple of options - we took a long line, made a loop in one end, and slipped that over the rudder and pulled the loop tight. Then carried the line forward letting it sink under the boat (there was a wrench for weight involved here), and ran it thru the bow eye, pushed the rudder down with a pole, and took up all the slack at the bow and cleated the line off. Was enough foward/aft tension to keep the rudder down.

Windward's site mentions a similar trick for raising the keel after a cable has parted. Tie a weight in the middle of a line, drop it over bow, and carry each end of the line aft on each side until you can catch the keel, then use the winches on either side to slowly get the keel up enough to make way as needed. If the winches are behind the keel, then at some point you'd risk the line slipping off/past the keel and having it slam down again, but you might get ungrounded this way, or get into your launch area enough to haul out easier,,