Ever heard the expression, "Up the creek without a paddle?" Well, try going through the Cape Cod Canal without a rudder!

Every summer for the past 25 years we have cruised to Cape Cod, including the canal, Onset, Cuttyhunk Island, Hadley's Harbor and the Vineyard. Every boater knows the amount of preparation involved for a three-week cruise, but we were finally ready to go on a picture-perfect Saturday morning at the end of July two years ago.

	Photo by John Mace
	If you're going to take care of things yourself, improvisation is the key. It certainly saved the day -- and the cruise -- for John Mace and Sealegs.

The seas were flat, and our old 30-foot Lang sportfisherman, Sealegs, ran like a watch, which was an oddity in itself since we usually have mechanical problems on the way.

We arrived in the canal and decided to stop in Sandwich for fuel and lunch. Our plan was to try and make Cuttyhunk on that day, so we left the fuel dock at noon and headed for Onset. As people who use the canal know, Saturday noontime in the summer is the busiest time of year. Between the current and boat traffic, it can be a horror show at best.

As we were approaching the Sagamore Bridge, all of a sudden the boat started doing turns on is own and went totally in circles. I had no steering control and tried to compensate by speeding up and turning the wheel, but nothing happened. Boats were going by wide open with wakes over 4 feet, which is of no help when you are in a predicament such as this.

I called the Army Corps of Engineers, which came out and after great difficulty towed us into the Sandwich Marina. We sat for an hour or so and tried to get our heads back on straight. I had my wife go up on the bridge and turn the wheel while I went into the bilge to see if the rudder was turning. It appeared that the arm was turning nicely, so the steering cable appeared to be OK.

So I put on my swim mask and jumped into the murky, fish-gut waters of the Harbor of Refuge and put my hand on the outside of the rudderpost. To my dismay, all that was left was the stub of the rudder shaft. The rudder had sheared off at the point where it is pinned to the shaft due to corrosion over the years. Luckily, no water was coming into the boat, so we were in no danger of sinking, but it was hard to convince my wife of that after what she just been through.

Well it was now about 2 p.m. and I was really upset as this was the first day of our long-deserved vacation. I tried to fashion a rudder out of plywood and a piece of pressure-treated wood for a tiller, but the locals really laughed and said, "You can't get back to Marblehead like that!" They called me a farmer and were actually taking pictures of me on the swim platform with this contraption of a steering device. It would have looked good on a sailboat, but I have a sportfisherman. They were right, so I didn't attempt the makeshift rudder idea.

I made some calls and the next day I hauled the boat in the parking lot of the marina and started to take apart the rudder assembly. I had no idea what size and shape the rudder had been, so I had to guess. The boat is more than 30 years old and I didn't have a picture or dimensions of the rudder. Not having wheels, I called my son in Marblehead to bring my truck to Sandwich so I could find parts, which he did on Sunday night.

After disassembling the rudder, we took a ride up to Plymouth, where a local machine shop happened to have a junkyard with all kinds of boat stuff. I found a stainless steel rudder off a lobster boat that looked OK, but it needed some machine work. The owner of the shop said he wished he could help me out, but all of his help had quit. I convinced him that I could run machinery and he let me do my own work.

Using his equipment, I was able to put a new keyway on the post and modify the shape as best I could from memory. I had to find all the components for the rudderpost as well as the arm and connecting hardware, which required considerable work on the boat itself.

At this point it was late in the afternoon so we drove home to Marblehead to get supplies and have a decent night's sleep. As there was no power in the parking lot of the marina, I had to bring my generator and half my cellar to make all the repairs. We drove back to Sandwich the next morning and the temperature was a balmy 95 degrees in the parking lot, so it drove me even harder to get the repair done.

I failed to mention that during all of this our cruising partners left us high and dry, as they didn't have a clue what to do. My wife took position under the boat and I worked the inside parts. She was covered with silicone sealant, including in her hair, and was enjoying herself just as any boating wife would. She now knows what a rudderpost, packing, and steering arms look like and how they work. We finished the repair about 4 p.m. and cleaned up.

That night she asked me if I was taking her out to dinner and where we were going to sleep. Well dinner was easy as there were two fine restaurants close by, but as far as sleeping I told her, "On the boat in the parking lot, of course." Keep in mind it's in a large open parking lot and she was nervous about the natives. I told her we could pretend we were at some nice hotel on the Cape. She didn't share the humor, but went along with it.

First thing Wednesday morning the boat was re-launched and we were on our way to Cuttyhunk by 9 a.m. The current was behind us and we flew through the canal with no problems. We arrived in Cuttyhunk Harbor by mid-afternoon and grabbed a mooring to officially start our annual vacation.

It never ceases to amaze me how many times I have had to improvise fixes for my boat and others to get out of trouble. I guess it's just part of boating that I have never been able to get away from. Actually, I consider it a challenge when I have to improvise. My boating friends never stop asking me for advice on boating matters.

The rest of the vacation went great, and we still talk about the incident. Would we do it again? Of course we would. It's in our blood. You won't believe that when we got home from our vacation I went to a local marine trader shop and they had two new rudders exactly the size and dimension I needed that I could have purchased for only $90 with no modifications necessary. Typical story Ð after the fact. Well, it's all part of the fun of boating, so the next time you are in a mess just think of my rudder story.



John Mace lives and improvises in Marblehead, Mass. He is past commodore of the Marblehead Yacht Club.

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