Recovering Lost Rudder

[Ghost95]

Depending how far up River you are, you might be able to use the tides to your advantage a little bit. The tide might not stop the flow of the river but it might weaken it enough to make the dive not quite so challenging.

I'd shoot for an hour before high tide at your location. That may be different than the reference station.

Success in these type of searches have always been determined by accounting for the little things as best you can. If your not fighting 3kts current you can do a better search pattern.

Also, I would bet the rudder didn't drop straight down but rather fluttered like droping a piece of paper. Still you should be close enough that you can find it.

Good luck.

 

[Eric802]

I've never taken a search & recovery course, but I've seen reference to the fact that your search radius should be equal to the depth of the water - so if it's 15 feet deep, your radius should be 15 ft around the point where it fell in. Of course, that assumes that you have a good fix on exactly where it fell in.

 

[cbelg]

I've never taken a search & recovery course, but I've seen reference to the fact that your search radius should be equal to the depth of the water - so if it's 15 feet deep, your radius should be 15 ft around the point where it fell in. Of course, that assumes that you have a good fix on exactly where it fell in.

I'm pretty sure my pin is close to where it fell out, I don't think even in a 3mph current it would go very far as it weighs close to 50lbs. It's basically a 20"×10"×.5" (thinker in front, almost 2" uptop where the shaft comes out and goes through the boat) solid brass.

 

[azstinger11]

What about more or less magnet fishing for it in the area?

 

[Still Kicking]

What about more or less magnet fishing for it in the area?

He'll need one of those special brass magnets (Though I suspect the rudder might be bronze, still not magnetic).

 

[azstinger11]

He'll need one of those special brass magnets (Though I suspect the rudder might be bronze, still not magnetic).

Oh missed that. Just suspected it would be a ferrous metal.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

@cbelg

How big is the rudder? I'd recommend doing a jackstay search (Jackstay - Wikipedia), as it is too easy to miss something in poor viz. That's what I had to do when I was a DMC and was a victim and the rescuer let my BCD sink to the bottom. Fortunately I had my BP/W and other tanks and a reel, so I was about to find it in viz so poor I couldn't see even a foot.

 

[cbelg]

@cbelg

How big is the rudder? I'd recommend doing a jackstay search (Jackstay - Wikipedia), as it is too easy to miss something in poor viz. That's what I had to do when I was a DMC and was a victim and the rescuer let my BCD sink to the bottom. Fortunately I had my BP/W and other tanks and a reel, so I was about to find it in viz so poor I couldn't see even a foot.

I looked at this as an option. The issue is current. At 3mph its hard to stay on bottom even with 30+ lbs. I felt comfortable with the search pattern of an arch tethered off back of boat but without having a location on it not sure it's worth it. Unfortunately I couldn't locate it with the side scan yesterday and am slowly loosing confidence in recovering it.

 

[Celt]

If you can’t lay out and do an accurate grid search it’s going to be difficult to find a bronze plate 10x20. 4 heavy weights at the 4 corners of the search area and grid search between them. You need to be certain that the area is fully searched.

 

[cbelg]

Well I've given up hope. Tried a few runs with the formulas sonar. Marked a few potentials but could not replicate the mark on a second pass. Found someone who can cast new rudder in about a week or two so they can get me back in before Aug 1st (trip planned with boat). It was a fun hunt, and has me interested in adding diving for treasure to some of the fishing I do off the boat. Also made me realize I need to recertify a few tanks and regs, so I can have a short dive setup onboard in case I need to get in the water for some reason.