Sacrificial Skeg?

mzonnenberg · **Joined:** 05 May 2008 19:45 **Posts:** 6

After racing in the St. Petersburg to Isla Mujeres, MX race. I arrived to find out that the Bottom half of my skeg add "fallen" off. For 500 miles or so we had 20 to 30 knots of breeze on the beam or forward of beam. I fellow Tartan 37 owner mentioned that the bottom half of the skeg is sacrificial.

steering without the skeg is no problem.

My questions are

Has any body experienced this problem?
Is it indeed sacrificial?
If not structural a problem, as a mostly race "Cool Change" is there any issue with not replacing it?
If I replace it, what would be the best course of action or method to replace the bottom half of the skeg?

Martin
Confused

Velera · **Joined:** 29 Dec 2006 09:38 **Posts:** 656

We will see what others say, but I believe that the lower few inches of the actual rudder are sacrificial so that if you ground out with the board up, you whould not automatically be pinned on your rudder you would just lose the bottom few inches.--I have not had the rudder apart, so I cannot confirm this.

I have had the skeg apart. The "skin" that fits over the stainless bracket that holds lower rudder bearing is certainly not structural--it is about an eighth of an inch in thickness. I have had it off to rebed my bracket and bolts and to get the shaft and rudder out to replace the bearings. I am assuming you still have the bracket in place--I would say that it provides some stability to the rudder. So there is no purpose to covering the bracket except esthetics and possibly reducing drag from turbulence. Though it would be interesting to know if the drag from the wetted surface is more than the drag from the turbulence with the cover off.

I think Tartan sells a replacement for the skin and it is easy to glass in place. While you are this far into it, you might replace the lower rudder bearings while you are this far into it and maybe rebed your bracket. It would save you tearing all this apart at a later date to get to it. S&S has a diagram of the rudder bearing construction and Tartan has the bearings for sale as well. Maybe we have that diagram on this site. I have had trouble opening the technical resourses for some reason.

I can't imagine any harm from sailing without it.

Isla Mujeres is a special place. How did you do in the race? Almost met my demise going out the north side of the island in a bit too much surf.

mzonnenberg · **Joined:** 05 May 2008 19:45 **Posts:** 6

Thanks for the response, I can't exactly visualize what you are describing in your response. I will dive the skeg and see what I am up against, I will also contact Tartan and see what they have to say about he bottom 18" or so of the skeg missing. I really don't think it is a problem.

It is an interesting question whether the extra wetted surface drag off having the skeg is less or more then the turbulence created of not having it. I believe it probably does not make much difference either way, and having the extra protection of a sacrificial skeg is probably worth the effort and expense of fixing the problem. Who knows maybe it did it's job and we actuall hit smething out there and we just did not notice it, at one point we had 25 to 30 knots true and 12-13 ft waves out in the Gulf.

You are right Isla Mujeres is a special island, I hope it does not go the way of Cancun and become overly commercialized.

Martin

javascript:smiley('8)')

Velera · **Joined:** 29 Dec 2006 09:38 **Posts:** 656

Before he died, Olin Stephens told a group of us (at the Castine Yacht Club in the 90’s) that the original design for the T37 did not have a skeg, but that Charle Brittain at Tartan felt that it was a very popular concept in the late 70’s as a necessary component for a safe cruising boat and sent the original drawings back to S&S to put it in. As mentioned, it probably has ver little structural value and the modification here might be a great idea to reduce drag. I would be a bit hesitant to take it completely off as the T37 does not pick up lobster pots in the rudder (though the prop does plenting ot that) because the skeg prevents that.

Ray Durkee
T37 #373

cseltzjr · **Joined:** 16 May 2009 08:06 **Posts:** 254

Our good friend Bob Engle (Whim #52) lost the skeg on his boat somewhat late in his sailing career. Bob had a lot of trophy silver in his house. We raced against him for many years (his was one of 3 T-37s in our Club that regularly went head to head) and I have no doubt that the loss of the skeg degraded the performance of Whim. It is true that Bob was getting up there at the time but I am convinced that the boat suffered.

puffcard · **Posted:** 02 Apr 2018 22:59

I'm having a vibration, when we're sailing close to hull speed. This is new since the last haul out, in November. Had the rudder down and pretty certain it's the skeg. Took a look and noticed that there's a crack in the filler at the joint. Pretty certain it's not the rudder, there is no vibration coming thru the wheel or rudder stock. Anyone else had a vibration, kind of afraid I might lose the skeg.

chrisduer · **Joined:** 26 Apr 2017 15:35 **Posts:** 23

We bought Waterborn without a skeg. It is truly just a fairing, nothing structural about it. The notch left in the leading edge just below the pintle could certainly be a crab trap catcher or line catcher. I planned to fill it in on the next haul out, but may now consider just modifying the rudder to be a balanced fin.

I don't notice anything off-balance or vibrating while sailing. We do have a newer Yanmar 55hp turbo and I do notice vibration and wash over the rudder at higher rpm when motoring.

Attachment:

IMG_20180213_083912.jpg [ 3.97 MB | Viewed 0 times ]

Velera · **Joined:** 29 Dec 2006 09:38 **Posts:** 656

Chris, it actually looks like the lower pintle and gudgeon is missing on your boat. Not sure how important it is, but I do not recall any other lower bearing in that assembly. Perhaps someone modified it and put a lower bearing in it?
Ray Durkee
Velera
T37
#373

jvoelxen · **Joined:** 21 Oct 2006 15:36 **Posts:** 268

I had my skeg torn off by a lobster pot buoy a few years back. The pintle remained in place supporting the rudder. I didn't even know it was gone when it happened. The boat performed normally. I noticed it was gone the next day when on a mooring. I did notice over the next few days that my auto bilge pump was periodically running when it rarely ran in the past. To make a long story short, I had no structural damage, but found that, when powering at hull speed, water was being forced up the rudder shaft to the point where it was over flowing into the bilge. What I learned that, on my boat anyway, the skeg deflects the prop wash and prevents the rudder post over flow. I did replace the skeg, over flow was eliminated. I also installed a pipe plug at the top of the rudder post.

jvoelxen · **Joined:** 21 Oct 2006 15:36 **Posts:** 268

There is a packing gland around the outside diameter of the rudder post under the steering quadrant.

Tartan37.com

Sacrificial Skeg?

Who is online