Yes, Rudders can Break

[carstenb]

Probably the worst thing you can happen when sailing is to lose your rudder.

Some cruisers will therefore only have long-keeled boats with skeg hung rudder so they are protected

But as we all know Sh*t happens..............

[skipmac]

Wow. What did he hit? Clearly something a little bigger than your average deadhead.

[danstanford]

Look at the prop! Must have been bottom, no?

[carstenb]

Probably safe to say it wasn't an Orca attack

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by danstanford

Look at the prop! Must have been bottom, no?

I'm thinking backed into something based on the direction of prop bend.

[Training Wheels]

Never would have happened if he had a spade rudder and a fin keel!

[Gripfast]

Originally Posted by Training Wheels

Never would have happened if he had a spade rudder and a fin keel!

LOL, 🤣 lmao

[captlloyd]

There has to be a lot of corrosion in that rudder to rip open like that. A log or some other object might have caused that to happen, there isn’t a lot of clearance between the prop and rudder.

[billgewater]

Ouch. It looks like a cargo ship. Up goes the price of Christmas. Again.

However, I can't see that there are any lessons for us all here that we didn't know about. Maybe the item should have been in the recent insurance discussion platforms. Some one will be ducking and diving over this one.

My bet is that it is the ship that hit the US submarine recently. Could be wrong. Maybe one of those ubiquitous semi submerged shipping containers.

[jmh2002]

Here is similar damage on a different ship, caused by going aground stern first:

https://officerofthewatch.com/2013/0...gation-report/

[DougR]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

I'm thinking backed into something based on the direction of prop bend.

Don’t think so....
My experience with bent props tells me that the vessel and prop were moving in the “forward” direction when he hit something very substantial. In normal operation the prop is rotating in a forward direction and the prop pitch is pushing water aft and at the same time trying to push/bend the prop blade forward. Typically the blade is strong enough to resist this forward bending force from the resistance of the water, but when something like a tree trunk comes along and tangles with the prop blade, the prop blade can’t force the tree to move thru the water fast enough. The blade gets bent forward instead of the tree being pushed aft.