Yes! Went out today with it being 35 degrees and winds hitting over 20kts. Think that’s a weather record for us now, we broke down into the 30’s. All we needed was the 135 genoa, running downwind and abeam consistanly over 7kts. Has me thinking again that I need a new boat with a longer waterline. Remember that the most important calculation to a sailor is (HS = 1.34 x √LWL)….
Anyway all was going great till you hear that single bump or thud sound, the boat goes off course because the autopilot said f**k it, I’m out. Right after that, the gust came, we heeled over greatly, inches from dipping the toerail (missed photo opp). So we headed back in after some great time on the water to see what broke, cracked, fell apart, whatever as we all logically calculated the amount of boatbucks this was going to cost.
Well, it seems tha the piston rotated and worked it’s way out of the buckle connected to the rudder shaft. Hmm, anyway got that back together and all if fine. Great day, great day, great day!
L u k e n . o r g 