Loss of steering

[yabba]

Nice weather last weekend, so we went out on the "Oosterschelde" for some fishing and swimming. As we were waiting in the lock, a small motorboat , outboard engine, maybe 12ft long with front steering wheel and a family of 4 , mom, dad and two kids aged 5 and 6 came floating in the lock and then broke the steering altogether as he was frantically turning left to right full lock in his first locking adventure.
Little bit of panic aboard, this was the first time the family was on the water as they were trying out a boat that belonged to a friend and the dad was maybe interested so he got to test if it was something the family would like to buy.
We towed them out of the lock, put the kids and mom aboard my Sunseeker, gave them some drinks and snacks to get them calmed down,as the kids were alarmed by their parents panic, and had a look what was wrong with the steering. As it turns out the steering cable was broken somewhere halfway the lining so no immediate repair possible. The dad did not really know what to do so i decided to disconnect the cable steering system alltogether, an turned a piece of broomstick i had lying aboard, in combination with some ducktape and a few strong tyraps into an oldfashioned helmstick straight onto the outboard, so he had basic steering again.
They were very grateful, although the wife and kids seemed hesitant to leave our comfy and snackfilled deck for their little boat again.
Naturally I got very angry when they wanted to pay us, as it is elementary good seamanship in my eyes to help where possible, and i cannot for the world guess the value of and old piece of broomstick the wife told me to bin a thousand times, but i kept aboard just in case. (the value of that fact will prove priceless to me in future binning or throwing-away arguements i guess.
But it left me wondering, what to do if the steering on my 28ft, twin-engine sterndrive should go out in a similar way, it would be a much bigger problem. Is there any solution possible to get back steering by fixing up some kind of temporary rudder, or is it just a "call help and get towed" moment? Or is everyone carrying spare steering cables just in case ?

 

[MrB]

It's twin engines so you could use them to steer. I have been researching yachts for some time and see many with "emergency steering option" , i guess that is just a manual tiller as an optional extra. Maybe Sunseeker do one your your boat?

Stern drives, forget the engine steering bit, DOH.

 

[yabba]

actually the twin stern drives give quite good steering if i have the steering wheel in centre position, I use it all the time to get out of my very awkwardly positioned and very narrow berth, but i can imagine that they are not going to be in the exact centre steer position should the cable break, or if they by sheer luck are at the time, i think they would not stay fixed in centre steering position when used to steer with broken cable( I can imagine putting power on them would make them turn sideways). Good idea, i might be tempted to make some kind of blocking tool just to be safe should the steering break, so i can at least use the engines for emergency steering. I guess the twin engines will be connected by some kind of rail or bar so they at least cannot get entangled if the steering cable should break.
Sunseeker will have nothing for me i guess, as it's an old boat (1984) even from before the big fire at Poole powerboats , as Sunseeker was known in those days, so no more details known (at least that's what they told me when i asked them some time ago .)
Oh BTW, if my English is a bit off, sorry to all but i'm Belgian and trying my best, that should explain everything

 

[MrB]

I have also read that Raymarine linear stern drive units act as an independent/emergency steering system.