I did see that on the beach and think, "Wow, that was creative! Good reason to bring a paddle!" We nearly snapped ours as well (look closely at our rudder cross bar in background, see the "speed bend"?) during one pitch, luckily it bent but didn't break.

BUT, it was bent forward which put the tiller extension into the mainsheet blocks/traveler, so between races we had to take it off the rudders, try to un-bend it a little, then we spun it around so it was bent backwards instead of to the front and that allowed the traveler to work.

At least the boom as spared! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />