Harrisville Hardware and a Hammer!
I awoke to a constant drizzle and a collection of puddles in the boat from the non stop rain. I crawled out of the seemingly shrinking cabin and stood up in the cockpit taking a survey of my situation.
I was almost 200 miles from home, in the pouring rain with a rudder laying on the dock and limited resources. The pintle hooks that make up the hinges mounting the 6 foot tall heavy ass rudder were split in pieces by the stresses of the heavy weather. The boat, a 22ft Kells is not a heavy weather boat. It is an overweight trailer sailor meant for day sailing with the odd over nighter.
I have taken it well past its design limitations on this adventure and was now facing the consequences. I was 10 hour round trip by car from home so finding someone to impose on for a parts run would have to be a last resort especially being during the work week and involve someone taking time off..
I did a damage check and found no visible fiberglass damage but 2 badly torn up hinges. One was cooked and one had a terminal crack in it that I hoped could be re-enforced if need be.
I took measurements and grabbed pieces before marching several blocks up the hill to town to see if I can find a marine store, hardware, car parts place or anything that may provide access to something I can improvise with.
I found a full size grocery store, a gourmet restaurant and an old uneven wooden floored hardware store. This brought my odds up from zero to a maybe. I hit the restaurant first before starting my scavenger run.
The restaurant was a nice place. The very nice woman waiting on me explained that her and her husband had recently bought it moving up from down state. He was a well known chef and she had the experience to manage and run the place.
I don't remember what I ate but it was incredible although pricey but worth it. They filled me in on my prospects and who could help me in the area.
I left with a full belly and their home phone number they gave me should I need help getting somewhere. I was feeling like things were looking up.
I ventured up the street to the hardware store. It was an old world family owned for generations place that is fun to just walk around in. I wandered around finding things and trying to figure out how to make this fly.
Luckily I'm good at improvising when in a pinch. The weather was going to be crap for several days so I had time to cobble stuff together I hoped.
I came up with some ideas and bagged up some odds and ends in hopes of strapping the hinge bodies back together. The owner was great and he also gave me his home phone number telling me if I need any tools or parts after hours to call him and he would come down and open up for me. This town is great!!!
I went down to the boat where I found everything damp and getting damper. I pulled out all my tarps and extra sheets and with a few poles and ropes made a make shift shelter over the back of the boat. I used all 100 of the clothespins I had in my laundry bag to stitch together the ugliest refugee tent you ever saw but in the end I had a kinda dry place to work in as long as the wind didn't blow too hard.
For two days I hammered and filed different ideas into shape to find the stresses of the large rudder to be too much for the jerry rigged contraptions. Nothing was going to put humpty dumpty back together again. I had to change my approach to the problem.
I slept on that realization and started the next day anew. I made the well worn pilgrimage to the hardware store and started over.
I pillaged the deep dark corners and dug behind boxes looking for anything I may have missed. After exhausting my options looking at the same isles of hardware I found the holy grail fallen back behind some fishing supplies. An old yellowed blister pack containing a cheap set of oar locks! Basic pintle hooks that could be my savior after days of busting knuckles and cutting fingers.
I spent the day bending and shaping until by dusk I had the rudder hanging off the back of the boat again in time for the break in the weather the next day. I would test it on the way out the next morning.
I spent 3 miserably wet and cold days in the harbor. In that time I spent way too much money on fancy restaurant food and too much time cussing and banging on metal scraps trying to get home.
There were people lining the marina's shore and in little metal row boats fishing for Steelhead trout that hadn't left since my arrival. Two guys in one 12 foot boat hadn't left the thing the whole time I was there, not to eat or crap. I was amazed at the diligence shown by these guys in hopes of catching a fish, none of which I ever saw caught.
I thanked everyone that was so helpful before tearing down the boat's hobo tent and stowed all the tarps, tools and crap pulled out over the week.
I was excited like a little kid going to the circus trying to sleep that night. I laid in the rain water soaked bed and dreamed of being able to get out on the water again with my new rudder assembly. I was scared the new hinges may buckle under the load but convinced myself all would be fine and called it a night.
The only way to find out would be to point it out into the open water and cross my fingers.