An interesting day - my first surf landing

Well today was interesting, to say the least! Forecast winds were rising to 35-45kmh, but the chop was particularly messy. After a while, the rudder seemed to be playing up. sticking and making steering difficult.
When I was a couple of kilometres downwind of home, with increasing wind, I bit the bullet, and decided to reach towards the surf club on One Mile Beach. There were no lifesaver flags out, but about 50 people swimming and a similar number on the sand.

I started the outboard, planning to try and ride to the beach on the back of a wave, but the bastard stopped just as I reached the breakers. I quickly put the Miragedrive back in, raised the centreboard, and uncleated the rudder down line, and headed into the surf.... gulp.
Several times, the back seat filled with water (and my walking stick got washed overboard), but I was able to keep the bow straight until the last wave, which caused a broach to about 45 degrees, but I quickly straightened it up. Done! Fortunately one of the swimmers found my walking stick, saving my emulating Jon Cleese's "Ministry of silly walks".

One of the lifesavers turned up, and arranged to get the TI higher up the beach, and get me a lift back to my car. They then took my trailer onto the beach behind a tractor, and then did something I had never thought of doing.. they hooked up my winch to the bow, and then WINCHED THE TRAILER UNDER THE BOAT. The TI stern stayed still until there was enough on the trailer to tip the balance forward. The stern simply lifted off the ground. So simple.

I then packed up, and discovered that my rudder pin was broken at both top and bottom, and, tellingly, one of my rudder lines was no longer captured under the washer. So on port helm, there was heaps of slack until the rudder got turned only because the ends of the two rudder lines were tied together. Fixed that, and the rudder is now butter smooth.

An interesting day! As it turned out, aborting the trip was actually genius (lol) as the wind really picked up and I would have never made it home to windward......

Memo to self. check rudder lines more closely before use!

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

Glad to read you got in safely.

I'm a complete neophyte but I sail my 1 month old TI off my own beach here in Thailand. I'm still learning the TI and sailing generally but reading all I can on these boards. When you guys are talking about surf launching and landings could you please let me know how big are we talking when we talk surf. To me more than 50 cm is getting big on a landing, but want to know what I can expect from the TI once I learn how to handle her properly.

Thanks
John

Wow, I can relate to this. I've had to abort twice due to unexpected high winds in the 25-30 mph range. The first time was when I had to sail upwind to get back to the launch. The winds were so strong I couldn't make any headway no matter what tack I tried and I was coming dangerously close to hazards. I ended up landing at a public sailing club dock which was extremely tricky. Fortunately for me there were several highly qualified people there to help and they had been rescuing small craft sailing boats all that day. They even helped me carry my TI from the dock to their parking area. From there I walked several miles to my car and then drove back to retrieve the boat.

The second time this happened I was nearly swamped because my leaking front hatch took in about 20 gallons of water. I had to abort to a beach many miles away from the launch. Landing the TI in 4-5 foot waves, 30 mph winds, and a thunderstorm was a real trick but somehow I managed to pull it off without too much of a fiasco. I then waited hours and hours for the waves to die down a bit, but no luck. If anything it got worse. I knew I had to head back in to get back home. It took me about six tries to launch into the waves but I finally figured out a way to do it. The only thing that saved me that day was my Torqeedo which allowed me to motor back to the launch area as there was no way I could sail or pedal directly upwind in those extreme conditions. That was intense for this fair weather recreational sailor.

I chalk both instances up to experience and now I'm more confident about what to do in those conditions and more respectful of the weather.

Sounds like a combination of good luck and good management Tony - my usual beach landing method in any kayak is paddle like crazy ahead of the break but get caught, broach to and fish my gear out of the water.

The winds gave us a few moments on Sunday too - what should have been a sheltered bay had some very dodgy bits in it. Trying to beach with a falling tide and a big wind showed just how the TI catches wind even with everything furled. Had to take a couple of shots at landing, getting the timing of drive out, rudder up, paddle out and front passenger out just right, before being blown back onto a sandbar!

As the winds reached gale force, we furled until there was just a scrap showing. Any more and while we were blasting along (8.1 knots on the GPS), we were shipping a lot of water over the bows and tramps and I was actually getting worried about pitch-poling! The boat was still very fast with lots of 'reefs' in and I was so busy I didn't have the luxury of taking many photos or videos while under way.

Living in so fl and the keys we sometimes get caught out in instant unforcast storms (sometimes daily in the summer).
The current around key west is fierce (north to south around 5mph west of the island). When the wind suddenly shifts north to south 25-35mph and you are south of the tiny island (where we usually go), you find yourself in grave danger (next stop Cuba, and I don't speak Cuban (lol)). This has happened to us several times now, on one occasion we were in 30-35mph winds blowing south, we had to land on the navy base on the south tip of the island with 4ft breakers coming over us, we had a couple armed guards helped pull the boat up on shore so we could wait it out. We were lucky to hit the 50 ft wide beach area with giant rocks on either side. 30 minutes later it was all clear and we proceeded back to the Simonton st launch.
Word of advice if you have A stock TI and want to sail out of KW, Simonton st launch is the only public ramp in KW, the north to south current is around 5-6mph past there always. There is no way a stock TI can sail back to the launch from the south, the boat simply cannot sail fast enough. Even with the sails put away and peddling as fast as possible it ends up being a 3-4hr exhausting ordeal getting back to the launch (painful). Also there are 3-4 cruise ships coming in and out of there daily, you will get chased away if you go anywhere near the cruise ships (just FYI).
Yea you can go way out to the West and round Wisteria Island then approach the launch from the north, but most of the water up there is only a foot deep and the channels are only 50-100 ft wide (tough to tack). Sure you can do that but it will cost you 5-6 extra hrs of sailing.
I suspect all this is why you very seldom ever see any small sailboats in and around KW. Though I have seen several Islands several Islands around Higgs beach (where we hang out the most), but everyone stays close to shore, we only go out on very light days.
FE
FE

Hope you bought the lifesaver(s) a palate cleanser!

As they had packed up and gone home, I am going back next weekend to catch up with them (might join the club as well)

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

Well done Tony! When do you thing your rudder pin broke--right on the beach landing? Or before, when you began to have problems.

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

I don't think I can ever be sure of the sequence, but my problems began with my steering line being loose, but I also have a suspicion that the rudder pin was broken but still basically in place. Whatever the case, the surf finished it off, with thew rudder ending up only being attached by the lines!

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

That's the reason I added the spectra safety lines to my rudder pin.
Even with the rudder pin broken you can continue to steer the boat with it until you can put in somewhere to make repairs, ( though it's very sloppy).
It's especially important in really rough conditions to be able to steer. And it is extremely difficult and dangerous to try and replace the rudder pin in rough conditions, and as most of us have found out by hard knocks trying to steer a TI with a paddle in rough conditions is pretty futile.
This is another reason I have the outboards, even if you don't use them often, they are always there to get you home if conditions change for the worse, or something breaks (like your rudder pin). My motors have saved my life on many occasions. Lol I call it gettin out of dodge when sudden thunder storms come up (sometimes daily around here during the summer) and you have to beeline back to safety.
I consider the outboard a must if you plan to take these boats far offshore, of course you don't have to use it, but for safety, in 6 yrs now I have never once taken my TI out offshore (especially in the keys) without an outboard safety motor.
FE

FE, how exactly do you use the spectra as rudder safety line - I remember reading and thinking must do but can't for the life of me find it?

Thanks...

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2015 Tandem Island - Golden Papaya "HALIBOO"
(retired) Outback - Hibiscus Red

The rudder safety line is the simplest of all mods. You only need a couple feet of spectra grey rudder line (available at any Hobie dealer). No tools of any kind are required and it only takes a minute or two to perminently apply to your boat. Once applied the mod is on the boat for the life of the boat.
The easiest way to apply the top string is to tie a slip (noose) knot around one end of the string.
What I did is remove the screw in plug that holds the rudder bungy, I then slip the string thru the plug and pull it tight so the knot catches on the underside of the plug. Attach by any means possible, basically what you want when you put the plug back in is the rudder bungy back in place working normally, with the addition of a spectra string sticking out a couple feet out of the plug (how you do it doesn't matter).
Now take the loose end of the string and wrap it around the rudder pin 1 revolution just below the head of the pin. Now take the loose end of the string and run it up to the padeye that catches the rudder bungy on the other side of the boat (in the rear of the boat). That's it your done with the top, nothing else to do.

What this does is if the rudder pin breaks at the top joint, the string holds the rudder in place enough to prevent the lower rudder pin joint from breaking. Note: in the event of bumping something or breaking the rudder pin via too much speed or wave action, the rudder pin only breaks on either the top joint or the lower joint, never both together. Without the string the lower joint will quickly break when the pin is in a weakened condition (half broke).

The bottom joint is a little more involved. You will need around 6-8 inches of spectra string and some clear silicone caulk.
Remove the rudder pin and place the rudder on top of the boat, now remove the rudder gudgeon (two or three bolts hold it on, you will nedd a socket wrench). Now fill the entire back side of the gudgeon with silicone, lay the string across the gudgeon just above the lowest bolt with half sticking out each side, now put the gudgeon back on, be sure to use locktite blue on the bolts. The excess silicone will ooze out the joint between the gudgeon and the back of the hull, just wipe the excess silicone away.
Re-assemble the rudder (put the pin back in). Now take the loose string and loop it around the lower part of the pin a turn or two, then tie the string to itself forming a loop. Make sure the loop is not tight, in the event of the lower joint breaking you want the broken rudder joint to be able to wave around about an inch in all directions.
These mods do not prevent the rudder pins from breaking. However if the rudder pin partially breaks (on either the top or the bottom joint), the strings hold the system together long enough to make repairs and still being able to steer (poorly), without breaking the other joint, even if both joints break, the strings keep the rudder in place enough to steer the boat (very poorly). With just the strings holding the rudder (completely broken rudder pin on both ends), the bottom of the rudder will wave around 6 inches in all directions but at least it is still pointing down and can still very poorly steer the boat until you can get in and replace the pin. With the safety strings in place the likelyhood of breaking both the bottom joint and the top joint at the same time now becomes highly unlikely.

I highly recommend anyone who goes offshore in adverse conditions apply this simple mod. I have broken many rudder pins offshore in adverse conditions, it's near impossible and very dangerous to try to replace the rudder pin in 2-3ft chop, especially in higher winds. You are totally helpless out there without a rudder and trying to steer a Big TI with a paddle is near impossible. Even with that mod, I still have my emergency outboards that I can steer the disabled boat back into shore and safety.
During the summer in the keys and swfl storms come up suddely without notice sometimes daily. If I'm 3-5 miles out there and a storm hits I drop the sails and beeline for shore at around 15+ mph (even with a completely broken rudder), I call it gettin out of dodge.
PS: putting the silicone behind the gudgeon prevents the bolts from fatiguing out and breaking over time,(kind of important).
FE

That's a clever mod FE. Thanks for the details.

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

Of course if you don't want to do the long spectra strings on the top, you can always duplicate the bottom design on the top,(running the string under the gudgeon).
FE

FE, thanks for the response - I know it's a bit of a cheek but have you a pic as I'm struggling with the explanation of parts etc.

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2015 Tandem Island - Golden Papaya "HALIBOO"
(retired) Outback - Hibiscus Red