In Lagavulin we finally took time to check the rope for the rudder withy. We'd been talking about it for a couple of days, but since it is a long job requiring 3-4 people, we had difficulty finding the time. First the rope must be pulled out of the holes in the rudder rib. Because it is set very tight, three people have to pull a strap attached to the end of the withy, while a fourth uses the rudder tiller as a crowbar to pull out the rope. After we got the rudder withy out of the rudder rib, we could lift the rudder into the boat. Now we thought that it would be easy to pull the rudder withy out of the rudder, but it appeared that it had been pulled very tight. We had to use a 2.5-metre-long iron stick as a crowbar before it would let go.
The outer cover of the rope looked fine and we almost decided to put it back. But we chose to be safe and unwound the cover to see what the rope looked like underneath the thick cover. This consisted of first a layer of tarred yarn, then a layer of sailcloth, then another layer of tarred yarn, and farthest in, around the rope, a layer of sailcloth. To our surprise several yarns in each strand had broken. In one strand 15 yarns were broken! We can't sail with this, and since we don't have any spare rudder withies on board (except an artificial one, a "lifting strap" from a crane), we cut 20 centimetres off the rope and tied a new knot on the end. Then we put on a new cover, this time with only one layer of sailcloth and one layer of yarn and put it on the rudder for the trip from Lagavulin to Isle of Man.
During the first hour of sailing, with a fresh breeze from the aft and a good speed, we had to tighten the rudder withy rope twice. And when it loosened again we decided to switch to the emergency withy and tightening system. The emergency rudder withy is the "lifting strap" from a crane, wrapped in yarn. This worked well all the way to the Isle of Man, but we will have to find a "Viking" solution, that works.
The drama wasn't over, however. At 14.00, about 5 nautical miles west of the Mull of Kintyre, the rudder strap broke without warning. The rudder strap is the leather strap that holds the top of the rudder on to the side of the ship. At this time we were sailing 10-12 knots in a high swell. We took down the sail and soon the Sea Stallion lay across the swell, luckily without taking in water. Then we changed to the emergency rudder strap that the crew of Cable One made us from some very strong artificial straps. We reefed down the sail all five ropes, for the wind had increased to 18-20 metres a second (gale force), with gusts of 23 metres a second, set sail and sailed on. The rudder was okay for the rest of the trip, but it was impossible to prevent the ship from sheering off in the heavy swell. Later, in a similar situation, we would try using a rope end hanging behind the boat. Several times, the rudder was out of contact with the water.
Except for the rudder trouble, I thought the Sea Stallion did well in the hard weather. It worked well, when lying across the swell, and behaved well sailing in the heavy swell.