...It does bring up the point that all
power boats should have an emergency tiller. There are problems with
quatrants, tiller arms, hydralic cylinders etc. An emergency tiller >will
allow the boat to be steered to safety. ....Generally there is >a square
top to the rudder post and a tiller can be fabricated to >fit on that.
Lacking that, a pipe wrench or a pair of chain vice >grips can suffice.>
I can relate a couple of sea stories that while about sailboats do back up
Thataway's advise.
I knew a man who crewed on the delivery of a sailboat from Taiwan to the
West Coast. They lost steering and resorted to vise grips on the rudder
post. They eventually wore the rudder post down to pencil size. While
trying to make it into, I believe it was Midway Island, they lost the boat
on the fringing reef.
In 1983 the owner and I were taking his 40' ferrocement ketch from
Kuching, Borneo to Darwin, Australia. As I later learned we did not have an
emergency tiller on board. We developed a leak in the hydraulic steering.
We soon determined that at the rate of leakage we didn't have enough spare
hydraulic fluid on board to make it to port. We placed a frying pan under
the leak, collected the drips, and poured the fluid back into the reservoir.
This worked for over a week until we made it to Surabaya, Indonesia where
we had the leak repaired. We never had to resort to using body fluids or
other liquids as hydraulic oil which I have heard of being used in aircraft
emergencies when I was still flying.
I have an emergency tiller on my boat, know where it is, and how to rig
it!
Charles Monroe, MTOA 1380, M/V Ebb Tide
1979 Marine Trader, DC, 34'
Point Patience Marina, NRC, Solomons, MD
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
On Sun, 20 Feb 2000 14:43:58 EST, Thataway@aol.com
wrote:
>...It does bring up the point that all
>power boats should have an emergency tiller. There are problems with
>quatrants, tiller arms, hydralic cylinders etc. An emergency tiller >will
>allow the boat to be steered to safety. ....Generally there is >a square
>top to the rudder post and a tiller can be fabricated to >fit on that.
>Lacking that, a pipe wrench or a pair of chain vice >grips can suffice.>
I can relate a couple of sea stories that while about sailboats do back up
Thataway's advise.
I knew a man who crewed on the delivery of a sailboat from Taiwan to the
West Coast. They lost steering and resorted to vise grips on the rudder
post. They eventually wore the rudder post down to pencil size. While
trying to make it into, I believe it was Midway Island, they lost the boat
on the fringing reef.
In 1983 the owner and I were taking his 40' ferrocement ketch from
Kuching, Borneo to Darwin, Australia. As I later learned we did not have an
emergency tiller on board. We developed a leak in the hydraulic steering.
We soon determined that at the rate of leakage we didn't have enough spare
hydraulic fluid on board to make it to port. We placed a frying pan under
the leak, collected the drips, and poured the fluid back into the reservoir.
This worked for over a week until we made it to Surabaya, Indonesia where
we had the leak repaired. We never had to resort to using body fluids or
other liquids as hydraulic oil which I have heard of being used in aircraft
emergencies when I was still flying.
I have an emergency tiller on my boat, know where it is, and how to rig
it!
Charles Monroe, MTOA 1380, M/V Ebb Tide
1979 Marine Trader, DC, 34'
Point Patience Marina, NRC, Solomons, MD
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