by SUNBIRD » Tue Jul 05, 2016 7:43 pm
Although I've been fortunate to never have to prove/disprove this.... I would expect a factory DS Rudder (at least a pre-1983 one) to sink like a stone.
My boat has the little pin that fits through a hole drilled in the upper pintle below the gudgeon. Good, but it does sometimes slip out. I try to always insert the pin from the side opposite where the retaining line is attached to rudder, figuring the weight of that line might help keep the pin in place.
My main concern on my boat is losing the rudder while shipping and un-shipping it (putting it on/taking it off) since I am on a mooring. My present solution (just added this weekend, after 20 years of ownership!) is a leash on the rudder that attaches to the boat. Long enough to allow enough slack to get the rudder on and off, but short enough to not get in the way. I had one on my old Widgeon and found it very reassuring. I screwed an eye-strap to the top of the tiller just forward of the slot where it attaches to the rudder, the leash attaches there and has a loop on the other end that hooks over one of the stern cleats. I made it removeable, but it could be made permanent easy enough (one on my Widgeon was spliced to the eye-strap and had a snap-hook on other end that hooked onto another eye-strap on the inside of the transom. That idea could be adapted to work on a Day Sailer pretty easily, A line set up like that would serve to prevent loss of the rudder In a capsize as well, although rudder would be hanging off boat by that leash if it did come off. Better than losing it if the pin had fallen out!
Rod Johnson, "SUNBIRD"
1979 DS II, # 10201