Almost lost steering, oil leak

[Anders_P42]

Getting to know my boat's systems already, went out with dad late afternoon last Friday. Heading out Portsmouth harbour just past Hamilton bank and noticed I was steering a lot to starboard. I was helming at lower position, the hydraulic pump built in to steering wheel was making a slight clicking noise. It had to be a leak, I remembered the tiller bypass valve was on starboard side in lazarette so dad took helm at idle speed while I went to investigate. Sure enough red hydraulic oil leaking...pipe nuts were loose enough to tighten with fingers.

Tightened them up finger tight, headed back in. Thankfully enough steering to get back without using emergency tiller. Bought some oil in morning, topped up lower helm pump and went lock to lock a few times, topped up and repeated until no more oil went in. Repeated process on upper helm pump, took about 400ml to sort. Steering seems ok without bleeding steering ram, which I couldn't reach behind fuel tank. I've asked Beneteau dealer to arrange someone to check it over and check the pipes on steering ram are tight.

Lessons learned...keep spanners with rest of tools, keep spare 2l oil onboard, add steering oil leaks to weekly checklist.

Looks like water in the oil, may be I got a small leak somewhere.

Unused fishing rod got coated

 

[Floating Preferably]

Very fortunately you and yours were all ok, but whover left steering pipes loose was being very irresponsible. Had the failure happened under slightly different conditions you could have had a complete steering failure with God knows what consequences. Nobody does these things deliberately but sloppy working practises, maybe being interupted part way through the job, maybe just being casual can be expensive. but steering and gearbox selection are two things that can either keep you safe, or really endanger you and your vessel. Always check yourself, regardless who did the work.
At Lymington Quay some years back I watched a yacht approach the quay unnecessarily fast, and right at the last moment the helmsman put the engine into reverse, but it did not go into reverse, and ploughed hard into the stern of the boat in front already tied up and rose up until it stopped and slid back. After the boat was tied up the skipper said in a loud voice 'They were supposed to have fixed that last week'. The sheer stupidity of that skipper takes some swallowing. Regrettably some people are that stupid, and skipper boats and drive cars, and are still in the gene pool.