My plans for the next couple of years only include coastal cruising. My current boat has a skeg hung rudder with a tiller. Not invulnerable (boats with skeg hung rudders have lost steerage) but it is well built and I keep an eye on its condition so I’m not particularly concerned. Worst case, the odds are I can get a tow.

However, if I go on an extended cruise involving long offshore passages, I will take either an emergency cassette rudder or windvane with auxiliary rudder. In early November, 2005 (?), while singlehanding on Lake Michigan, I lost my rudder. (Transom hung rudder. In open water miles offshore. Probably hit a deadhead or something similar. Impact sheared all but one bolt securing the lower pintle to the rudder and deformed the pintle.) Didn’t truly appreciate how critical a rudder is until that happened. Perhaps it’s “once burned, twice shy.”

After losing my rudder, I researched emergency steering and concluded the two best options were (1) a windvane with an auxiliary rudder and (2) an emergency cassette rudder. I have the plans for and have done the design calculations for an emergency cassette rudder. But I think a windvane with an auxiliary rudder is the better option. So I would try that first. If it wasn’t satisfactory, then I would make a cassette rudder.