Thought you might like a laugh at my miss-fortune yesterday. I was doing some tests to make sure I had fixed all the leaks on the boat, sailing with the B rig in a nice breeze when all of a sudden I lost control of steerage. The boat was 100 yards down wind of me. Fortunately it worked its way slowly upwind but remained stubbornly in the middle of the pond. I needed a rescue boat but there was no one around other than a couple who had only just started sailing and had packed up their boat. The rescue boat was chained up however there was an RS Tera sitting in the dinghy park without a cover and an oar in the rescue boat. Managed to find a life jacket, launched the Tera. It's only 11 feet long or so but I could kneel neatly in the front of the cockpit and paddle with my oar. Its a flat hulled boat and tricky to paddle in a straight line but I got to the boat and rescued it and zig zagged my way back to the shore. Boat saved.
Moral of the story, file a notch in the rudder post so the tiller screw has something to lock into even if it comes loose. I had one on my previous boat but forgot on this one. No harm done. Glad I wasn't sailing on the sea in tide.
It s hard to sail a boat with a leak in it.
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