A broken rudder left Bailiwick‘s crew out of the race and with an even bigger challenge, to steer the 40-foot sloop to safety in Bermuda. By Chris Museler, bermudarace.com
No amount of inspections could have helped prevent what happened to the Blue Jacket 40 Bailiwick late Tuesday night during the 2018 Newport Bermuda Race. The team was finally released into the strong 20-knot reaching conditions they had hoped for, when Carol Tobian suddenly lost steerage.
With two reefs in the main and a 100 percent jib, Bailiwick continued reaching along at eight to nine knots but Tobian was free spinning the wheel. “I asked, ‘Are you sure?’” watch captain Steve Burton told us. “When I saw the wheel spin, that’s when I called ‘All hands.’” The carbon-fiber rudder post had broken where it exits the hull, and the rudder was gone. Read More
