Queries following a beautiful fast sail

[dave42w]

Hi,

Jane and I spent 3 hours sailing on Rutland in winds that gusted well into force 5.

Absolutely loved it. We spent some time with the unarig after a few scary moments at the beginning. Then Jane had a go with the trapeze (not because it was needed at that point, I was sitting on the other side), she has never done it before and enjoyed it.

Finally we zoomed around a lot with both sails. As together we are close to the maximum weight limit it was particularly wet According to my Garmin watch our max speed was 16.3mph (14.2 knots) at that point we had not fully lifted the windward hull but the leeward one was disappearing under the water

Managed to heave to and lower the main so we could return to Whitwell nice and calmly.

Anyway a few questions after this (sorry):

1. We had quite a lot of water (several inches, multiple full sponges to empty) beneath each hatch afterwards. I am assuming that as it was in all 4 it is the hatches leaking rather than any holes. The rubber seals are barely visible which makes me wonder if they need replacing. Is this an easy job or do the hatches need to be fully removed?

2. One of the rudders has a hole in it (just below the notch for the fully down position). It was full of water at the end. Should I dry this and plug it?

3. The rudder that would not stay locked up was also not staying locked down, especially when it was the leeward hull and we were going fast. Should I fully dismantle it and if so adjust what?

Finally, looking at our diaries we might be able to join the meeting at Grafham, just for the Saturday. If light winds I'd probably sail unarig, if strong we might sail together. Hopefully if I book singlehanded plus an extra dinner we could swap to double handed on the day?

Cheers.

Dave

PS Strava track at https://www.strava.com/activities/709759015

[WaveyDavey]

Hi,
1. We had quite a lot of water (several inches, multiple full sponges to empty) beneath each hatch afterwards. I am assuming that as it was in all 4 it is the hatches leaking rather than any holes. The rubber seals are barely visible which makes me wonder if they need replacing. Is this an easy job or do the hatches need to be fully removed?

If you have the 'traditional' Allen style of hatch covers then the rubber seal can just be pulled off with your finger nails and a replacement stretched around the opening. Replacements are available from Windsport, Speedy Sports and other chandlers. Speedy Sports ones are neoprene rather than rubber and slightly oversized, which I think is intended to provide a better seal.
I'm not sure about the RWO style hatches because I've not had them.
Of course, you could have water ingress around the hatch opening itself, in which case you would need to drill out the rivets, remove the hatch surround and then refit it with lots of silicone sealant and new rivets.

All that said, a little bit of water in the cabinets or hulls (a couple of sponge-fulls) is not uncommon for a Sprint 15 after a windy sail, especially two up when the boat is lower in the water and shipping more spray across the decks. I wouldn't go for major boat surgery unless you think the amount of water is excessive.

Hi,
2. One of the rudders has a hole in it (just below the notch for the fully down position). It was full of water at the end. Should I dry this and plug it?

Rudders are hollow and will take on a bit of water - this is ok. There should be drain hole just next to the notch which should not be blocked up. This is designed so that water will drain out when the rudder is on the boat in the lifted position. Good idea to let the rudders sit in this position for a while after sailing before taking them off.

Hi,
3. The rudder that would not stay locked up was also not staying locked down, especially when it was the leeward hull and we were going fast. Should I fully dismantle it and if so adjust what?

There's not much to adjust in the rudder mechanism itself, but you can dismantle and clean up the wire, pulley, spring and sliding parts to make sure it all moves and engages well. A bit of lubricant on the moving parts won't hurt.
I can't recall now if filing a slight dip in the blade notch to help it stay down (rather than up) is recommended. I've never had to do it. Hopefully someone else who has fixed this problem will confirm. If you do try it then don't go too far - its important the rudder can kick up if it hits something hard.

Hi,
Finally, looking at our diaries we might be able to join the meeting at Grafham, just for the Saturday. If light winds I'd probably sail unarig, if strong we might sail together. Hopefully if I book singlehanded plus an extra dinner we could swap to double handed on the day?

It would be good to see you at Grafham. There's always a good 15 turnout for this one. Bob has his finger on the pulse there and often posts here so is likely to chip in soon. Alternatively you can phone or email the GWSC office for clarification - I've always found them friendly and helpful. Details on their website.

[Bob Carter]

Hi
David has given you some good advice. I'll chip in with a few as I know that your boat was built in South Africa. It has a different type of hatch cover to the one Dave describes so his guidance there is not applicable. I had one of the SA boats and the hatch covers were very good and are not likely to be the cause. Leakage into the hulls is worse on the SA built boats -mine would quite often have a gallon of water in the hulls after a long days sail in strong winds. Much less on light wind days. Windsport did some investigation on a couple of the boats and the source of the leakage is inside the beam sockets and is very inaccessible. Your leakage would be at the high end of what you can expect because it was a windy day and you were 2 up, which makes the boat sit lower in the water.
On the rudder if the rudder kicks up when you are sailing it is most likely that the locking roller is not travelling fully into the cavity in the rudder blade when the rudder blade is down. Have a look to see if this is the case. If so it might help to spray the roller and it mechanism with dry silicone lubricant - if you do this is will also make it more likely that the rudder will drop when in the up position. Filing the small detent in the rudder as David described in an earlier posting fixes this. Other than that you are into a strip down of the rudder assembly as described by David.
On the Grafham Cat Open if you pre-enter as single handed and then you decide to change to 2-up you can do this by popping into the race office beforehand on Saturday morning.
Regards
Bob

[dave42w]

Thanks for all that help. Really useful.

Dave

[Bob Carter]

Dave,
There are 2 excellent articles on Rudder maintenance in our tips section of this website. One by Matt Smith and another that Brian Phipps of Windsport wrote for a recent NewSprint.
Cheers
Bob

[dave42w]

Dave,
There are 2 excellent articles on Rudder maintenance in our tips section of this website. One by Matt Smith and another that Brian Phipps of Windsport wrote for a recent NewSprint.

Thanks Bob, don't know how I had missed them. They are going to be really helpful. Although no rudder problems sailing today (and although it wasn't as windy we still managed 16.3mph

Dave