My boat has paravanes as well as active stabilizers. I'm going to try an experiment as soon as I get her going this year. I'm going to deploy the fish with snatch blocks connected to the top link of the chain leaders. I'll lead the block and tackle back to the cockpit. I'm pretty sure I can turn the boat be pulling a fish closer to the boat. You adjust the fish on the opposite side from the direction you want to turn. I suspect I could also do it be raising the outrigger, but that's more dangerous. I know I've heard of emergency steering done by streaming warps from short poles strapped to the deck. I'm thinking the fish approach would work in the same way. Any calm-water approach to emergency steering is one thing. Trying to run before a blow with a jury rig is another. I agree that the most likely failure point is in the hydraulic ram at the rudder quadrant, and that this can be either spared, or new seals and the various bits one would need to repair it could be stocked. Course, these things usually go when stressed, like when running down hill with large passing seas. That's because they're working hard and because that's just the way Murphy likes it. Making repairs in those conditions would be un-fun. I get a little sick thinking about it. With a little extra engineering, one could have an installed spare ram that simply needed to be valved in. I think that's where my thoughts are heading at the moment. On my previous boat, a Shannon 43 cutter, I had an installed spare. I had to pop a pin, remove the dead actuator, attach the spare and swap an electrical connector and I was back on autopilot. I used it too. In the gulf stream with big seas from astern that weren't dangerous, but were exciting. Took 2 or 3 minutes. That wasn't an hydraulic system, but that's what friends who are marine engineers are for. tr