First Major Fix – Rudder Cage - Phase 1 – Problem Identified

Recently, we went to take Ariel out for an afternoon cruise. While placing the rudder boards into the rudder cages we noticed that one of the board was kicking out. After further inspection we discovered that the bungee that holds the board in place had slipped down the rudder cage. This was just a symptom. The real problem was that a weld on the rudder cage had broken.

Our first thought was that we were going to have to have Ariel hauled out of the water so that the weld could be fix. Thankfully, there is a very active, yahoo users group for Gemini catamarans. I was able to post the problem and within 30 minutes I had an answer/solution. Paul from s/v Double Exposure hull #238 told me that all we had to do is to remove the hinge and steering strut bolts and then we could remove the cage without taking Ariel out of the water. It was as Paul had described. Thank you Paul!! Picture below shows the broken weld.