Sailors invent orca deterrent Rudder Safe

Two experienced sailors, Heath Samples and Mark Hist, have invented Rudder Safe, a groundbreaking unit designed to deter orcas from coming into contact with yachts.

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Rudder Safe, which has a patent pending, is composed of a small propeller mounted on a stainless steel 316 bracket, with a memory-foam fixing that creates a non-slip fitting over the rudder. It is clamped to the rudder by ratchet straps.

The idea came to Heath and Mark after their Beneteau Oceanis 40 was attacked by a pod of three orcas five miles off Barbate in July 2022 while sailing from Scarborough to La Rapita, 100 miles south of Barcelona.

Heath Samples is a Yachtmaster Ocean, an RYA instructor and a former RNLI ALB Navigator, while Mark Hist is an engineer, whose company MH7 Ltd has customers from the military, aerospace and subsea industries.