"We are very, very happy because we think we have found a permanent solution for the weakest link in the whole of Sea Stallion’s construction – the point where the rudder is fastened to the side of the ship," says Søren Nielsen, head of the shipyard at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde and boatswain on the Sea Stallion.
This weekend in Portsmouth, when the Sea Stallion is on show at the Royal Naval Museum just opposite Queen Victoria’s warship, HMS Warrior, is being spent on a thorough check of the whole ship’s structure and rigging, while interested museum visitors look on. Today, Saturday, the mast was set exactly right and two broken rivets were replaced. Otherwise there is nothing wrong with the construction. And there are no leaks. Tomorrow we will replace the rudder tackle.
The Sea Stallion is carrying a series of rudder tackle from a Danish forest. Each consists of the lowest metre of a small tree, including the roots that held the tree fast in the ground. These roots are extremely strong. In this case the tree is birch. The task is to stick the tackle through the hole in the rudder and corresponding hole in the hull, after which a knot is tied on the inner side. In this simple, but strong way, the rudder is held fast to the ship.
“Last year, when we sailed to Dublin, we had a lot of trouble with the hemp rope tackle we were using. It broke a few times and nearly caused us serious problems," explains Søren Nielsen. “So we worked hard to find the right solution. Now, we think we’ve found it.”
“Since yesterday, we have had a new piece of tackle in water to make it flexible so we can handle it. The current tackle has lasted since we left Dublin and has sailed about 400 nautical miles in five days, much of the time in very heavy weather. It has now been fretted a centimetre thinner. And it has also fretted into the rudder’s wood.”
“So we are going to cover the new tackle with rope or leather so that we no longer have wood against wood. That should stop the tackle fretting our rudder.”
“As I said, we are very happy about the tackle holding for 400 nautical miles. That is probably its limit. On the last part of the trip here to Portsmouth we had to reef the sail to reduce to pressure on the rudder, because we were afraid the tackle would break.”
“At one point out in the English Channel, we actually considered letting it break so we could see how it would break – as an experiment. But we agreed that there was too big a risk of other dangerous events if we did that. So we decided to take the pressure off and change the tackle here in Portsmouth. The next tackle should last until our last stop in England. Then we will put in a new one just before we set sail off on the three-day non-stop stretch over the North Sea”, says Søren Nielsen.