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left nz, rudder broke


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Rudder broke Saturday, they didn't hit the beacon until Tuesday. Sounds like they may have had other methods to steer, but the primary problem was weather conditions, as they got rolled.


"The experienced sailors had been sailing from New Zealand to Australia in a 12-metre vessel as part of a 10-year circumnavigation of the globe when the yacht's rudder broke on Saturday.


They activated the yacht's emergency radio beacon three days later, on Tuesday afternoon, after their yacht "rolled" during a heavy swell and high winds."


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It's one thing to have emergency backups to pass Cat1 and totally another implementing them in huge Seas.
I am not referring to this particular incident because I simply don't know, but there used to be an alternative steering arrangement allowed, in which you fitted an emergency tiller to the top of thew shaft that was located under the Aft Bunk. I know one person that had to use this situation in Seas no where near this above Tasman example. They simply could not stay under the Bunk for long without becoming horribly Sea sick and they had to abandon that particular steering idea.
But yes there is also a way of steering the Boat using Sail position and or dragging a droque to one side of the boat. Once again, I have never tried it in a Storm. But have done in nice sailing conditions. So I can't speak of experience of trying to steer a boat in what they were in. I think if that was the situation for me, I would wait out till conditions improved and then try the Alt methods.
I noticed on the Video that they had some kind of Sea Anchor off the Bow, but the rode was side on to the Boat, not pulling directly out in front. That made the motion just plain terrible for them and it would be near impossible to move around to do anything.
It will be interesting to hear their Story later.

Anyone know them??

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Yes it would be good to know what happened. I reckon a bi-annual? publication of all these types of incidents would be really beneficial.

 

Seems like real opportunities to learn from real incidents are missed by not getting a good debrief of exactly what happened.

 

Lots of good accounts here:

 

http://dragdevicedb.com/

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Thanks MarkMT interesting to read this stuff after the event as you never here/read about it at the time.

Just thinking about my own yacht,what would I tie a drogue off too if running?? bridle around winches?

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Read Lynn and Larry Pardy's storm tactics. Thats the basis of the system that I have used, and would continue to use in really heavy weather - over 50 - 60 knots, especially if coming from where I want to go, or in a prolonged storm with really big seas.

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