Rudder Failures

Over the past year or so I've seen many reports of rudder failures and/or loss in cruising boats. Apart from age and "cycles" like we've talked about in the past, I'm wondering what the cause is. And I'd love to get feedback on this from the great designers we have around here - as well as the salts.

I'll lay out my hunch to get things started, based on my own experience...

Last year the boys and I did a 150-mile offshore delivery of a friend's Pearson 365 in some relatively "rough"...

Rudder Failures