Boy, what sail I had last night.. logging my 37th sail of this, my first, season and still ‘wet behind the ears’
The wind was building and gusting to about 20kts. I was having the time of my life surfing down the waves on a broad reach with full main and 135 genoa. I hit a max speed of 8.5kts surfing but averaging a good 6.5 most of the time. Decided to reef the main when it got dark, not long after that I was on a wave fighting a broach when the lower hinge of the rudder cassette came away, snapped both bolts!!!
Wholly round up! I let the main sheet out, furled the genoa and went below for tools to get the rudder on board before the top hinge got ripped off too. The top portion of the aluminum cassette was getting twisted up pretty bad as the rudder dragged and leveraged on it, but I managed to pull the rudder out and brought it safely on board.
I tell ya, it took a conscious effort to stay calm in the chaos.
A very uncomfortable motor home.. (under sail is SO much more stable)
What an adventure. Lots of lessons learned.
In a sick and demented kind of way.. I kinda liked it!
Now I gotta figure out how to straighten out this cassette and the bent up hinge brackets..
Today I examined the transom pretty thoroughly and cant see any major damage. Very surprising to see stainless bolts snapped and the hinge brackets all bent up without having ripped a chunk of fiberglass out. didnt even flex enough to crack the gelcoat.
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