Sailing in Really Shallow Water

Leave them up and steer with your sails

Is it a bad idea to leave the rudders down, but unlocked, and use the rudders as well as I can in that position?

Jonathan

No, most people do that to some extent. However if you're really having to fight the tiller than your putting a lot of stress on the rudders. It will be much easier on you and the boat to steer mostly with the sails (basically you steer with the main and drive off the jib)

Jonathan:

If you're having issues trying to steer the boat upwind with the rudders kicked up, loosen the mainsheet a bit to depower the rig. This will take some stress off the rudders until you get to deeper water.

Thanks, Tad and Brian, I was definitely having trouble steering without the rudders. I'll try letting out the mainsail as you suggest and sailing by the jib.

Do you mean to basically let there be very little power at all in the mainsail and sail by the jib, using the mainsail only for steering?

Jonathan

By letting it out, you're not torquing the boat around the mast as much, therefore you'll be going forward just enough to get to deeper water where its safe to put the blades back down.

On a boardless boat you have to be careful sailing without your rudders down.

Hi Jonathan,
Seeing as you are fairly new to catsailing, you might have fun with this little drill. To begin with, try this on a "light air" day so that you have time to let things sink in. Lock your rudders in the up position and put the helm down. You can do this by yourself, or better yet, get the crew involved. Ease the jib "a little" and tighten the main "a little", ease the main "a little" and tighten the jib "a little". Tighten the main and jib together, ease the jib and main together. Let the jib "fly" and tighten the main. Let the main "fly" and tighten the jib. Once you get a feel for what this does to steering your boat, go through as many variations as you can come up with. Lesson #2...Go through the above routine with as many variations as you can come up with regarding crew weight distribution. Both at the stern, both at the forward beam, one fore and one aft. Once you learn how to "steer" your boat with the sails and "weight distribution" you will realize that the rudders are there to "guide" the boat. Hope you have fun, and it will save your rudders and castings.
Dave

Thanks - I will definitely practice that before I go out to the Pamlico sound again.

Jonathan

Has anyone ever tried this against another boat with the rudders down, It would be interesting to see how much the rudders affect boat speed. Used to do this on monohulls but never tried it on my cat.

Sounds like a good technique to try in speed sailing events.

Gareth

I wouldn't particularly say that this method is conductive to speed. However it could allow you to take many shortcuts over sandbars and large shallow areas encountered in distance races. Here's a little story about my best (though inadvertant) display of sailing without rudder-guidance:

I went to the Sarasota Sailing Squadron's Labor Day regatta a few years ago. The wind was blowing onshore at a gentle 7 knots. When I got there, there was only one spot left on the shore large enough to fit a catamaran, though four more cats were being rigged in the parking lot. Not wanting to take the last space, I put my boat in the water with a great shove and then tossed my anchor out as far as possible, which got me about 50' away from the shore after letting enough scope out to hold (it's about 3' of water).
I pulled the main up first and sheeted it tight to tension the rig. Then I raised the Jib and uphauled it nice and tight. This way when I sheet the main in, the jib's luff is tightened, and when I let the main out, the jibs luff is loosened.
When I had just cleated off the jib halyard the anchor line came undone and the boat began drifting back towards the shore lined with boats. I ran back to the rudders to put them down, only to find they were still tied in the up position for trailering! I stood in the center of the rear trampoline with the jibsheet in one hand and the mainsheet/traveler in the other. I let the main all the way out and held the jib backwinded to turn the bow off the wind (standard 'out-of-irons' proceedure). When the boat had turned 90 degrees to the wind (and was about 20' from shore and in 1' of water), I let go the jib and sheeted it in on the leeward side to drive the boat forwards. There were some little kids (none could have been more than 10 years old) playing in the water which I had to pass before I could round up and tack. I zipped past them while they all waved and hooted at my trick of sailing in knee-deep (on them!) water on an 18' boat! After I'd past them I sheeted the jib in tight, traveled the main in half-way and sheeted in some. When I had a bit of speed up I sheeted the main tight and pulled the sail over-center to tack. As soon as the jib back-winded I let the main out all the way on the 'new' leeward side of the boat and let the jib push the bow back down until I was now heading back towards my floating anchor-line. I let the jib go and loosely sheeted it from leeward. I left the main traveled out but sheeted in enough to balance the jib. When I came up to my anchor-line I tacked right on it, then walked to the bow while the boat drifted back and grabbed the line out of the water.
I made sure the next knot held!