...the last 1500 of it without a rudder, in only 26 days, in a boat remarkably similar in design to VIEWFINDER, hitting their original destination right on the nose, well... precious little, I suppose... (grin)

My point has been that is IS certainly possible to complete such a passage, in such a boat, without a rudder... The crew of EGRET proved that, doing so in textbook fashion, with remarkably little fuss...

Obviously, there could have been extenuating circumstances aboard VIEWFINDER... As Brian points out below, a captain's first responsibility is to the safety of his crew, and it certainly appears that his crew was not up to the task of toughing it out... The choice to enlist an inexperienced crew for such a voyage proved to be an unwise one, he was probably right to choose to live with the consequences of such a decision...

I'll readily admit I'm a bit spoiled in this regard, doing so much of my sailing singlehanded, my sole responsibility being only to myself... On a delivery to the islands a couple of years ago with my brother and oldest nephew as crew, we diverted to Bermuda when Herb started talking about the possibility of the formation of another tropical low... Had I been sailing my own boat alone, I may not have done so... But with them along, it was a no-brainer, and turned out to be the right call in the end, our 4 day layover in St. George's turned out to be the highlight of the entire trip...

Not sure I'd bother to be dropped aboard a rudderless CS 36 mid-ocean... However, that J-44 abandoned in 2006, I'd have been all over that one in a heartbeat...

Hell, I could afford to shed a few pounds, anyway... (grin)