Twin wheel trouble

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webcraft

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Coming out of Lochaline on Friday with full sail to find ourselves close-hauled in rather too much wind I bore away a little to give us a bit more searoom and get comfortable while we set up for putting a reef in. Except nothing happened. Wheel won`t turn.

Looked across to the port wheel. No crew member holding it or leaning against it, no sign of anything jammed. Asked the first mate if he could see anything jammed, he looks. Nothing sez he.

Ah, it's free now confirmed by a wee turn to stbd, luffing us up. Now back on course... except not. Wheel will not turn to port. Starting to get worried now, suspecting a major problem with the steering gear. Another exploratory wiggle gives the same result - a turn to stbd, into wind, but not back. A tack is now inevitable, leaving the genoa aback. Heaving to appeals, but it is impossible because I am unable to put on opposite helm to heave to so now we are going to be forced rapidly downwind.

We are approaching the point where the boat is officially out of control with the helm jammed over half way to stbd in strong gusty conditions on a fairly close lee shore. Not to mention that the ferry is - inevitably - now heading out towards us.

Now I put the engine on and tell the crew to get ready to drop the sails and prepare the anchor while racking my brains for a better solution.

Then someone spots it. The binnacle compass cover, somehow jammed almost invisible white on white right behind a spoke of the port wheel and uncannily acting as a one-way ratchet.

Problem over.

But if it had been a real below decks steering failure what would you have done?

- W
 
webcraft said:
Then someone spots it. The binnacle compass cover, somehow jammed almost invisible white on white right behind a spoke of the port wheel and uncannily acting as a one-way ratchet.

Problem over.

But if it had been a real below decks steering failure what would you have done?
Click to expand...

That's a new one for the next YM Examiner's CPD day....
 
Scream, swear, quick investigation, find sea room, fit emergency tiller, start the engine, get anchor ready, drop sails, engine in gear, notify coastguard, visual observation of any obstructions to rudder, cup of strong coffee and enjoy the edventure because is going to be one.
 
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC said:
Scream, swear, quick investigation, find sea room, fit emergency tiller, start the engine, get anchor ready, drop sails, engine in gear, notify coastguard, visual observation of any obstructions to rudder, cup of strong coffee and enjoy the edventure because is going to be one.
Click to expand...

Pretty much what I thought except for one thing - on the handover the owner of the boat had told me that in the event of the steering being jammed below decks the ET was not going to work. I must admit that surprised me - I would have thought it went direct onto the rudder stock. I am not 100% convinced he was correct about this, and would have tried it anyway if/once we had sea room. Finding sea room should have been possible once the sails were down by only throttling up on the favourable parts of the circle the boat was condemned to travel in.

I have to say it was (briefly) one of the most alarming things that has happened to me in my sailing career. We live and learn. Just because it doesn't look as though something is jammed does not mean it isn't. It was the obvious explanation, so the initial hasty investigation should have been more thorough.

- W
 
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CAPTAIN FANTASTIC said:
Scream, swear, quick investigation, find sea room, fit emergency tiller, start the engine, get anchor ready, drop sails, engine in gear, notify coastguard, visual observation of any obstructions to rudder, cup of strong coffee and enjoy the edventure because is going to be one.
Click to expand...

The entrance to Lochaline would not afford such luxuries!
 
webcraft said:
But if it had been a real below decks steering failure what would you have done?
Click to expand...

Something along those lines did happen to me a few months ago. Taking a work colleague out for a day sail, he’s steering while I’m getting the main down and stowed ready to anchor for lunch. Busy anchorage, with a fair bit of traffic coming past. I ask him to come to port a little as he seems to be taking us towards the shore - he says “but it won’t”. Apparently for a couple of minutes now he’s been unable to move the wheel to port, but didn’t say anything as he’s never been on a sailing boat before and doesn’t know what’s normal.

I take the wheel and find indeed it’s jammed going to port, but will turn to starboard. Turn us around out of the anchorage, reduce speed, put him back on the wheel and hope he’ll be able to avoid any close quarters situations while only able to steer one way. Jump down below, go aft, and open the steering quadrant box.

In there I find that the autopilot tiller has somehow rotated on the rudder stock, so that it’s now hitting its end-stop when the rudder is just to port of amidships.

I pull the R-clip that connects the pilot drive (clip and washers are all on little lanyards so I don’t have to take care to keep them out of the bilge), retract it out of the way and secure the moving end on the hook I put there for the purpose when I installed the pilot. Then I reach for the toolbox which is fortunately stowed nearby, take out an allen key, and loosen the clamping screws on the pilot tiller so it can rotate freely on the stock. Now the rudder is free; probably took less than a minute since I left the cockpit. No problem to turn back into the bay and anchor for lunch.

After we’d eaten, I went back and re-positioned the pilot tiller and reconnected the drive. I wonder if it should have a pointed-tip grub screw added to locate it more positively on the shaft. This was in my original design but the machinist who made the tiller said it was unnecessary so the tapped hole for it was left out.

Pete
 
webcraft said:
on the handover the owner of the boat had told me that in the event of the steering being jammed below decks the ET was not going to work. I must admit that surprised me - I would have thought it went direct onto the rudder stock.
Click to expand...

I’m sure it does - but if the mechanism is jammed then it’s still not going to turn. The tiller will work if the linkage has broken (eg snapped cables on a cable system), or if you’re able to disconnect the jammed part from the rudder stock by removing a bolt or whatever.

Pete
 
It happened to me last month. We were at the end of an unpleasant 2 night 3 day sail pretty much all on one tack which probably was the final straw. Turning the boat to reverse into the small space allocated needed at tight reverse turn at the last moment in a 20 knot cross wind - and the steering then chooses to get very stiff to starboard and far too loose to port.

I’m glad it wasn’t totally jammed but it took 3 goes and 2 aborts (accelerating into two boats following too close behind until they listened to our shouts to keep away) until we’d moored with a largely sympathetic audience who thought it was all about the crosswind.

The cause was stretched steering cables and one turning wheel so worn any cable would have fallen off. Emergency tiller and auto helm would have worked perfectly but only if we’d cut the steering cable. They wouldn’t undo as the tightening nuts were corroded in place as (like a fool) I hadn’t done and annual check and tightening of the cables in my 8 years of ownership.

After 3 days if fixing it I learnt a great deal about a previously hidden bit of my boat.
 
I think, if you've got no real control of the boat's direction, then first response is probably to stop.
Near a lee shore, anchor.
If there is assistance to be had, accept it.

Only steering failure I've ever had was sailing a dinghy with crew out on the trapeze and watching the rudder blade drift away behind us...
 
Have had two real failures.

One on a Bav 37, securing feet on binnacle gearbox broke off, design fault now rectified. Used emergency tiller for many hours to get back to port. Autopilot no good, belt driven on wheel.

Other, Jenneau 45 with twin wheels, chain broke. Took a good few hours to get to port, but autopilot did most of the work, direct onto rudder stock. Docked stern to using emergency tiller, quite easy.

Have practised it loads on YM prep courses and Coastal Practical courses.

First aid, take way off, either engine to neutral or sails down. Get anchor in water immediately on a lot of chain. All this buys you time. It works.

Then find problem.

I happen to know that taking power off and dropping the anchor is standard practice on submarines running on the surface. Works for them too!

Other interesting things to practice are the use of the emergency tiller to carry out a few tacks and gybes, plus on prep weeks, MOB using it.

Ive also put boats alongside using the tiller and on an easy berth, the autopilot.

Anyway all that blah blah just says have a go at stuff before its real. :encouragement:
 
capnsensible said:
First aid, take way off, either engine to neutral or sails down. Get anchor in water immediately on a lot of chain. All this buys you time. It works.

Then find problem.
Click to expand...

. . . which is pretty much what I ordered, but then found the problem before we got the sails down.

It's a boat I've sailed before, but not very often, so I have no first hand knowledge of the steering mechanism below decks. Somethign it is good to know all about o your own boat, but my own boat(s) have sticks instead of wheels so not an issue.

- W
 
webcraft said:
. . . which is pretty much what I ordered, but then found the problem before we got the sails down.

It's a boat I've sailed before, but not very often, so I have no first hand knowledge of the steering mechanism below decks. Somethign it is good to know all about o your own boat, but my own boat(s) have sticks instead of wheels so not an issue.

- W
Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought you were bang on in what you did. :encouragement:
 
sailorman said:
Tillers break too & i have an under deck A/H on the quadrant & a cranked emergency s/s tiller that fits on the rudder stock that is abaft the combing
Click to expand...

Our wheel jammed a couple of years ago but quickly inspection showed that it was one rudder stock which was seized. The simple solution was to loosen the clamp on the stock so that turning the wheel only operated one rudder which was sufficient to get us back to our marina for a haul out and proper fix.

It's sometimes an advantage to have two of everything.

Richard
 
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