Jury steering experiences

[snowleopard]

Have you used jury steering in anger after a steering failure?

There are lots of theories on how best to do it but I'd be interested to hear from those who have had to do it for real, over a significant distance. What method did you use and how well did it work? And how far did you travel with that arrangement?

Sorry, should have allowed multiple answers. Just answer in relation to your most significant experience.

 

[Blueboatman]

Er ' other'
Snapped tiller.Coastal so no biggy, mole grips to the stock gave just enough leverage for motoring.
Had a predrilled 30mm hole in the aft edge of the rudder though so in theory could gave threaded a rope through and up to the deck.

Posting this in case the info is useful to someone else one day( and hopefully not needed).

Didn't you have to do an unassisted 180 in an ocean race snowleopard?

 

[Searush]

They were going to find him "not guilty", but I steered them into a guilty verdict by using my internet phone to gather rumour off the internet.

 

[Quandary]

Jury steering

I only used our jury rudder to move the boat to a fuel berth at the time of commissioning, (wheel steered boat but no wheel present) It was a very useful exercise. The fancy looking stainless steel emergency tiller supplied did not fit into the square aperture in the rudder shaft head until it had been modified slightly with an angle grinder. When it did go in it was a pain to steer with and to keep watch ahead, it was clear that if the wheel had been present it would have to come off to leave enough room to lash an extension to the tiller for comfort on an extended passage. It was fortunate we were obliged to try it as it looked fine clipped to the cockpit locker bulkhead.
So my advice to those of you with wheel steering is to get the manufacturers emergency tiller out on a calm day and make sure it is easy and fast to fit and comfortable to use if a heavy sea is running.
Our steering gear is a direct arm from the column to the shaft so fairly fail safe and if the wheel did jamb or fail I would be inclined to depend on the autopilot ram unless there was no electric, perhaps this is an argument against those wheel pilot type gadgets.
So top marks to Finngulf/ Jefa for designing a system and making and supplying the tiller as standard but zero for failing to get the fabricator to try the square spud in the hole.

 

[r_h]

I've had two occasions - once in a lot of wind using an emergency tiller that we had (fortunately) figured out how to set it up on that boat in advance.

The second in more benign conditions, that wasn't an option, so we towed a drogue, with lines taken to each end of the spinnaker pole (lashed across the transom) and then to the primary winches.

 

[jamesjermain]

Triangle Race - 2-handed yacht a few hours after restart from Crosshaven, steering failed. Port Officer (me) shipped aboard to assist crew but they had already fixed up a jury rudeder of spinnaker pole and board - made the 10 miles back to Crosshaven in good order under sail. Wind aft of the beam Force 4-5

In our YM Offshore test, examiner told us the rudder had broken and what were we going to do about it. Fixed up a similar arrangement of board and pole - sailed on under jury rig. Then examiner chucked the bucket and fender overboard and gave us a MOB drill. We hove to, then weared round and picked up the MOB first go. I think we not only surprised ourselves but the examiner as well. Wind Force 3-4

 

[Leighb]

Not really a major problem, but was racing my Harwich One Design down in the harbour, going to windward and suddenly she started rounding up. The helm had gone very light and it took a moment or two before I realised the tiller had broken just at the point that it entered the rudder head.

I was able to knock the broken stump out and rather loosely wedge the boathook into the rudderhead. Too much free play to manage a windward course, but managed to sail downwind back to the club.

 

[snowleopard]

Didn't you have to do an unassisted 180 in an ocean race snowleopard?

Yes. Snapped the rudder quadrant off the stock during the OSTAR. The designer had kindly provided for a dagger board at the back of the cockpit to adjust helm balance. Crank the sails in tight and raise the board and she would go to windward without the helm, let it down and ease sheets and she bore away on a broad reach. I sailed home about 700 miles like that, nipping down into the aft cabin to put a spanner on the rudder head when I needed to tack.

I'm now a firm believer in rigging a bit of fixed lateral resistance rather than the more complex moving blade that the textbooks all talk about.

A multihull of course makes life easier as they track straighter and have a nice wide base for differential drag devices e.g. hanging a bucket off one stern to tack.

I did once lose hydraulics on my present boat and was able to steer by using the engines instead - another bonus of having two hulls

 

[sailor211]

Rudder less in mid atlantic

30 years ago we lost a rudder mid Atlantic . A skeg rudder. Lowering bearing lost and shaft bent, then bent a bit more and one afternoon the rudder pupped up beside the boat. A vote for +ve bouancy in rudders.

Our solution was he old backup of spinnaker pole with bunk board attached by jubliee clips. Lash the pole to the pushpit and steer. !!

Well no.Not Quite

Problem 1, a wave hits the board 400mm x 700 mm , as boat rises. sending the man steering upwards quite fast ( I was 10 stone in those days)
Problem 2, a wave hits board as boat drops down . The man steering is pushed to the deck !! ( I was 10a stone weaking in those days)

Solution was to tie ropes from outboard end of pole to skeg, a short swim!! and from inboard end to spinni block fixing point to limit travel.

Our pole/ sweep was entering the water at 30 degrees, so rotating the pole with a crow bar was the best way to steer the boat. More effective than sweeping teh pole/board.

This gave us steering from 50 to 150 aparrent Hard up wind was not possible nore was dead down wind. We had choice of ports, infact anywhere that had a port would have been acceptavle. So not a problem


There were limits in wind conditions as well , but picking a day to make landfall when wind is between F3-5 is only a matter of waiting. Unknown landfallwith a F8 onshore would have been foolhardy, so a day bobbing around is ok, if you have cake and tea.

 

[phanakapan]

Nothing as 'glamorous' as other replies- cable snapped on our centrecockpit wheel steered Moody 33 when off Osborne Bay IOW in the middle of Cowes Week; emergency steering was by emergency tiller, go down into the aft cabin, open a cupboard door, pop tiller onto top of rudder stock; easy enough except the two berths limited the angle to about 30 degrees, and you couldn't steer and see out at the same time so someone on deck had to say 'left a bit right a bit'. All marinas in Cowes refused us entry so we made it up to Island Harbour Marina, and through the lock onto a berth.

 

[Neil_Y]

I had a cable steering system on a Sweden 38 fail 36hours into an atlantic crossing.

The casting that took the steering cable from vertical to horizontal failed.

The Sweden emergency tiller lasted about an hour, it was a stainless tiller with two flat ss plates welded to tube that sat either side of a square topped rudder shaft. The plates bent and broke off. As we were only 150 miles from the closest canaries island we used the ST6000 working on the quadrant to allow us to steer upwind back to the nearest harbour, running the engine most of the way to provide electric.

Not much fun and only just enough fuel.

 

[sailorman]

Have you used jury steering in anger after a steering failure?

There are lots of theories on how best to do it but I'd be interested to hear from those who have had to do it for real, over a significant distance. What method did you use and how well did it work? And how far did you travel with that arrangement?

Sorry, should have allowed multiple answers. Just answer in relation to your most significant experience.

Yes but we have a A/h ram on the quadrant
we had a steering wire come adrift ( yard fitted 2 differing bulldog clips & i should have noticed). i had checked all the steering that season but failed to check the bulldog clips for tightness .
we were 30 mls off shore the crew reported loss of steering , we used the A/h & engine to get back on course, we had involuntarily tacked with the genny aback.
diagnosed the problem & a combined crew effort i refitted the wire whilst under way.
weather S/W 5 Oostende > Harwich
PS we do have an emergency tiller as well

 

[snowleopard]

Anyone tried using an auxiliary-rudder self steering gear for the job, e.g. Hydrovane? Or have they only enough power if you trim with the main rudder?

 

[jimbaerselman]

Cowes - Dinard race 1965 or so. Transom hung rudder, spinny up, F5 reach, just west of Minquiers, lovely sunny day. Suddenly tiller felt odd, and boat wouldn't react.

After some investigation discovered that the lower rudder pintle had come adrift, and all the tiller did was cause the rudder to lift from side to side - until the other pintle broke. Got the spinni down (ugh!), smaller jib, reefed main, tried to steer under sail. Rather jittery . . .

Did spinny pole and washboard job, but had lots of difficulty making lash up to keep washboard vertical. So it didn't steer. However, the wash board out back did make the boat directionally stable, so steering under sail worked much better than without.

Nice guys in Jersey Yacht club watched the whole episode through telescope, sussed the D flag, then interpreted our X flag when we anchored off the town sent out a launch to bring us in. No VHF in those days!

 

[Mrnotming]

Rudder refuses to fall off!

F6 onshore about 6 miles offfshore Dublin Bay/Kish Bank area,Ron Holland,Club Shamrock 30' competing Irish Times 1/2 Ton Cup:
Boat tacks and immediately tacks back again by itself. Heavy sea running so apologized to racing crew and tacked again!
Boat tacked back again (itself) a second time.
Used emergency tiller, but when wheel turned freely, suspicion arose.
Looked over side, there was rudder, appearing at intervals on the surface,
Got gybed and it appeared on the opposite side.
Retired from racing, steering with sails on broad reach, fortunately a track which would bring us to Dun Laoghaire Harbour, where a club launch took us in tow, having been advised by VHF.Craned out almost immediately, mouldings of rudder blade in bits, hanging on by a thread from the tangs.
New rudder and metalwork /rudder shaft required.
Nice it happened near home port, rather than in far away places!

 

[VO5]

Emergency Tiller.

Yes.
Unpleasant.
Owing to steering failure due to breakdown of Whitlock Mamba, I had to deploy and use the emergency tiller in mid Atlantic to make Faial, sailing the last 1247 NM thus to make port.
Very tiresome.
In the last 650 miles was engulfed by the Azores High and had to motor in.
As the self steering and the Mamba unit are connected, it was hand steering by emergency tiller all the way, I hated every minute of it.