The Hanse already has a practical emergency tiller, in case of a malfunction between the wheels and the rudder. But what will happen on case of a broken rudder?

A boat cannot go anywhere without a functional rudder. Unlike a keel which should be quite robust, a rudder rotates around an axle so it can be a relatively fragile piece of equipment. In the recent post-covid era, an unusually large number of broken rudders have been reported off the coast of Portugal due to playful(?) ORCA whales.

A broken rudder, on its own, is not a life threatening situation as you can still wait for rescue arrival but most probably you will lose your yacht which your insurance will try to salvage. To avoid this situation we need a functional mechanism to get us to the closest shipyard without external assistance until being close.

I have discussed with reputable sellers of emergency rudders, but it seems that the design of our boat (platform at the stern + total displacement) renders these ready-made solutions not reliable enough for this boat.

 

With the above in mind I have constructed a “soft rudder” based on a concept developed by Paul Kamen, which has been proven. His original paper can be downloaded here.

My adaptation for Legato: