PCER 11.1 deals with emergency steering should the rudder become disabled. Unfortunately, this is one of the more common equipment problems in past Pacific Cup races and is one of the more expensive and time consuming items to get squared away for the race. In the two previous times I've done this race we had ER setups that met the race requirement but were certainly less than ideal for deployment and/or use in rough conditions. In my mind a solution designed around a cassette that only required the crew to drop in a rudder blade was the way to go. Other J120 have used the Scanmar SOS rudder. It's functional, but heavy and a bit awkward to deploy. I spoke with them at the boat show a couple of years ago and they promised to develop a cassette version (which they tested a prototype in the 2016 race), but as yet they don't have a production product. I spoke with a local composites shop that does custom carbon fiber ER's that I've seen on other PacCup boats - it's very nice, but VERY expensive. Other boats, especially a local J124, put me in contact with Competition Composites up in Canada (aka, Phil's Foils). They've designed a carbon cassette and foam/glass blade that would work perfectly. And with the US$/CAN$ exchange rate, a nice discount. So, we pulled the trigger once the cassette/blade arrived worked with a local metal shop to build the structure to connect it to the transom. With everything installed - 40lbs.
Since these pictures we modified how the lines attach to the reverse tiller. These lines are lead through cheek blocks at the stern corners and to the cabin top winches. Very easy to control, tacks and jibes the boat effectively. The metal hardware and cassette will be pre-installed and live on the transom during the race. If needed we drop the rudder blade in (stored under the aft quarter berth), run the control lines to the winches, and we're good to go. Process takes less then 30 seconds.
Like a lot of the safety equipment we've installed - we hope to never use it!
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