My rookie mate from Albufeira crosses the Atlantic with an autohelm breakdown on the way.

[Beneteau381]

Those who know Albufeira marina will know Paulo on Le Beflor. They left Mindelo on their crossing and a day out the autopilot packed in. They got on the Starlink to me.
It was making funny noises and the ram wasn’t cycling. I talked them through stripping it to check the belt and gears. All was good, brass gears as well so not the infamous nylon gears that strip.
Trying to explain how to remove a circlip without circlip pliers to a Portuguese and a French guy was challenging. I told them in Anglo Saxon terms that if they broke it that it was game over. They eventually grasped “peel it off with a small electrical screwdriver”
They put it back together and all was good. They found a water leak on the electrical connection and corrosion. Cleaned that and it worked all the way across the pond. I suspect that was the big issue leading to the breakdown.
See the vid here,

 

[capnsensible]

Good to hear he made it OK.

 

[Beneteau381]

many thanks for your help on his way to the Canaries

 

[capnsensible]

Pleasure!

 

[Graham376]

This reminds me of two friends who set off from Bruce's to Caribbean and had no end of problems. The weld holding the rudder on self steering failed so they went to Cape Verde to fix it. Set off from there and it again broke so, used Autohelm with linear drive (old model with plastic gears) which also failed. Last resort, underpowered tiller pilot on emergency steering arm which burnt out some miles later. Ended up hand steering, 2 hours on/off for several hundred miles.

 

[capnsensible]

This reminds me of two friends who set off from Bruce's to Caribbean and had no end of problems. The weld holding the rudder on self steering failed so they went to Cape Verde to fix it. Set off from there and it again broke so, used Autohelm with linear drive (old model with plastic gears) which also failed. Last resort, underpowered tiller pilot on emergency steering arm which burnt out some miles later. Ender up hand steering, 2 hours on/off for several hundred miles.

Mrs. S and I have sailed many thousands of miles 3 on 3 off with broken autopilots....

 

[Mike Bryon]

Yes life changes when you have to helm. So like every other possibility best to prepare for it. Otherwise it’s a big jump from hardly any helming experience to x hours at the helm at night in a following sea.

Prudent to get everyone on board practiced at steering to compass. Then it won’t seem such an ‘emergency.’ If/when your autohelm stops.

 

[Beneteau381]

Yes life changes when you have to helm. So like every other possibility best to prepare for it. Otherwise it’s a big jump from hardly any helming experience to x hours at the helm at night in a following sea.

Prudent to get everyone on board practiced at steering to compass. Then it won’t seem such an ‘emergency.’ If/when your autohelm stops.

I was asking me about stuff on the build up to the trip. He told me he had a spare pilot, but as he mentions on the trip when the sh hit the fan, it was only the computer. I still don’t get how the end of the ram unscrewed (that’s what he told me and he alludes to in the vid.) the error message he eventually got after the repair was rudder position data not being rcd. I am guessing the corrosion in the connector was preventing the position sensor passing info to the computer properly and that extreme pressure at the end of the stroke when it didn’t know it was there,was doing things. Interesting, when they are videoing discussing the pilot errant behaviour in the cockpit, I can hear loud clicking coming from it.