From: J. Peter White
Sent: February 06, 2012
To: John Curry
Subject: Hydrovane just saved my boat, and maybe more… [Emergency Rudder]

I have a C&C 39 with a semi-balanced spade rudder. My intent was to go off-shore sailing with my family. To ensure that I did not have to worry about the rudder, I had xxxxxxx design me a new, updated rudder. I then had xxxxxxx build the new rudder. And to really be sure, I put a Hydrovane on the back of the boat.

Myself and my two young boys (10 and 12) were entering between the two rock breakwaters of the Nuevo Vallarta channel down here in Mexico. Well, the channel into the marina was running quite a bit of a swell, with breaking waves along the rocks. My youngest son was at the wheel, so I told him to speed up so we could try to keep ahead of the waves and not broach going in.

As we entered between the two rock breakwaters he started yelling that he could not steer. I grabbed the wheel and nothing. We were veering off towards the rocks of the breakwater at close to 5 knots. Thinking the steering cable broke I hit the autopilot. I could see it turning the shaft and still nothing. People started waving us off and passing pangas started yelling at us to get away from the rocks. I put the boat hard in reverse and then the waves started hitting us. According to the depth sounder we should have hit bottom, and I thought we are either going to be smashed against the rocks or we were going to get knocked down. From backing hard into the waves the cockpit started to get flooded.

Then I remembered the Hydrovane right behind me. I pulled the pin and pushed it over hard, and before you knew it we are back in the channel, and at the slip. Looking at the boat from the side we saw that the rudder was completely gone. We later found it drifting in the channel. The shaft had sheared off, perhaps from corrosion from some as yet undetermined source.

This was the day before yesterday and just wanted to say ‘thanks…’

Peter (Kai and Liam) White
SV Outrider

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