State of emergency tillers

[Captain Larry-DH]

I had the displeasure of using the ET 3 weeks ago. I was crewing on a friends boat on a trip up from Miami to CT when we lost steering at 1:00AM about 44 nm SE of Cape Fear. We took turns hand-steering in 40 minute shifts. Not fun, but without assistance we made it safely to a marina in the Cape Fear River, in Southport.
What I learned: 1) Bring an emergency tiller and know how to use it. 2) Westbrook Brewers in SC brews a world-class IPA.

Edit: the cause of failure was that the steering cable was too loose and it jumped off a sheeve, and frayed from rubbing against the sheeve box. Check your cable tension.

This experience motivated me to install a ram-type autopilot in my current boat, which came with chain-to-cable steering and a rotary type autopilot. The ram attaches directly to a dedicated tiller arm attached to the keyed rudder post.

 

[colemj]

This experience motivated me to install a ram-type autopilot in my current boat, which came with chain-to-cable steering and a rotary type autopilot. The ram attaches directly to a dedicated tiller arm attached to the keyed rudder post.

This was the smartest thing you could do. I dislike the rotary drives that are not independent of the steering system. I know of 3 boats that crossed the Pacific this year that lost one of those drives and had to hand steer for up to 3,000nm in rough conditions. The double risk of this drive is that if the steering breaks, the AP is also non-functional. With a direct drive on the rudder, you can have a steering failure and still keep the AP operational and steering the boat.

If you have a tie bar between the rudders you are good to go. If not, consider adding another RAM on the other rudder, or devise a way to lock the rudder in center position so you can steer with the other.

Mark

 

[jssailem]

I know of 3 boats that crossed the Pacific this year that lost one of those drives and had to hand steer for up to 3,000nm in rough conditions.

That would be a good argument for a Windvane on a boat crossing an ocean.

 

[Captain Larry-DH]

If you have a tie bar between the rudders you are good to go.

Yes, there is a tie bar.

 

[colemj]

That would be a good argument for a Windvane on a boat crossing an ocean.

How is that? They can also break, and I know at least one boat on the same passage this year that broke their windvane.

I'm not aware of anyone losing a ram or hydraulic drive on the passage.

A ram is 1/3 the price of a windvane, and mounting easier and less expensive.

As for Larry's boat specifically, there is no way a windvane is going to work on a Leopard 40.

To clarify how I know of these boats, there were several hundred boats, if not north of 1,000, crossing the Pacific this year within the same 3 months, and most of them were on a dedicated Whatsapp group. Other failures with a surprising number of cases were standing rigging and sails. Pretty much everyone experienced chafe of running rigging to some extent, but not everyone was equipped to deal with it (via chafe protection, spare line, etc).

Mark