Make Do

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catamount
Candidate for Boat-Obsession Medal
Posts: 378
Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2005 7:30 am
Boat Name: GREYHAWK
Boat Type: Peterson 34
Location: Boothbay Harbor, ME
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Make Do

Post by catamount »

So the first night out on a single-handed race to Bermuda, about 60 miles out from Newport, the bracket that connects my autopilot ram to my tiller broke in two. Now what? I can't hand steer by myself for the next five days! But I can't go back -- I've been planning for this race for over a year -- I'm going to Bermuda!

I reduced sail, got the boat back on course more or less, balanced and tied off the tiller* while I scrounge around to see what I might have on board to fabricate a replacement bracket. Unfortunately I don't have a stockpile of metal scrap nor a machine shop on board. In the end I was able to cobble something together using the two pieces left over from the original bracket, my drill, a sail tie and a pair of vice-grip pliers. The new bracket is set up so that the autopilot ram hooks on from underneath, and so I needed a way to hold it up onto the upside down pin. Originally I tried tying it up with light line, but it would fall off at the wrong moment. Vice Grips to the rescue -- they are now holding the end of the autopilot ram up onto the pin on the tiller, and we're good to go.

*my boat is very easy to balance and get it to sail by itself -- to windward, especially in light air. Most of this race, though, was downwind in a good breeze, with the only time that we were close-hauled and in light air being the night that the bracket broke!

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and from underneath:
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Originally, where you see the bolt with nylock nut, I had used the tiller pin pointed down, and held the pilot pushrod's tip up on that pin with some ties. But the ties would loosed up and the pushrod would fall off the pin. So I used the vice grip to clamp the pushrod on. The plastic tip that hooks on to the tiller pin eventually sheared off, so I just clamped the pushrod itself directly to the tiller as seen here. Eventually the nut on the tillerpin worked loose and the whole thing came apart, so I replaced the tiller pin with a bolt and nylock nut.

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As designed, the tillerpilot pushrod is supposed to pivot on the tiller pin. With my clamping arrangement there was no pivoting between the tiller and the pushrod, which had two effects -- One, the clamped joint worked a lot and the vice-grips would occasionally fall off and I would have to restart everything (get the pushrod centered again by pushing buttons on the AP control, clamp it up, and then reprogram the AP, all while the wind and waves are pushing the boat around, so I had to work quick to prevent a round up or worse). Two, some of the stress of the non-pivoting joint must have been taken up in the bearings of the tiller-pilot pushrod.

Also, the manufacturer's installation instructions specify that the you install the ram to be horizontal. Most tillers are pivoted to swing up, so if the pushrod isn't horizontal it has a tendency to push the tiller UP as well as off to the side. So I had this problem with my jury-rig system, so I ran a tight line over the top of the tiller to hold it down.

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Approaching the Bermuda's Northeast Breaker, the autopilot ram started making Grrr-Grrr noises instead of it's usual whirr-whirr, so I think all the wear and tear just got to be too much for it. I hand-steered the rest of the way in.

Fortunately, I had a spare ram for the return trip. I also had a spare fluxgate on board, as the ram and compass were the two parts I understood to be most likely to fail. But an autopilot is a total system, and you need to consider every aspect of that system -- I had never really given much consideration to how the ram connected to the tiller and the possibility of that breaking.

For the Doublehanded race from Bermuda back to Newport, Wendy (my wife and crew) brought a new bracket. The new one is much beefier (3/8" vs 1/4" for the original) and inspires a lot more confidence. So here is what this ram to tiller connection is supposed to look like:

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If you ever plan to do any short-handed sailing where you will be relying on some sort of self-steering system, my advice is to make sure that every part of that system is totally bomb proof! In addition to having appropriate spare parts, a separate whole self-steering system (e.g. wind-vane as well as autopilot) is probably an excellent idea and not an excess of redundancy!

For more on this adventure, check the pictures here and the e-mail reports filed from the boat here (eventually I'll get around to editing the e-mails into a coherent illustrated story on my website...).
Tim Allen -- 1980 Peterson 34 GREYHAWK
Harborfields Housekeeping Cottages, West Boothbay Harbor, Maine
Sailors for the Sea, a new voice for ocean conservation
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Rachel
Master of the Arcane
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Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 7:59 pm

Re: Make Do

Post by Rachel »

Nice jury rig!

Funny, I used to have the same style bracket --- until one day on the way from SF to San Diego I suddenly didn't...
rig.jpg
Since the hang-down bit of the bracket was always in the way (on that boat), and the design no longer inspired confidence after breaking, it was re-done to attach on top of the tiller (via a modification to the other end to let the autopilot ram sit higher).

Congrats on your sail to Bermuda! :)

Rachel
Figment
Damned Because It's All Connected
Posts: 2845
Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2003 9:32 am
Boat Name: Triton
Boat Type: Grand Banks 42
Location: L.I. Sound

Re: Make Do

Post by Figment »

Even with the tillerpilot issue, I'm seriously envious of that experience.
Thanks for bringing the rest of us along!
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