'How to' steer your boat in an emergency - steering lost

[DaleH]

From this great post by TopShot25 on re-building your Seastar hydraulic steering pump, click this LINK here.

What would anyone do if you were on the water and the hydraulics stopped working, is there a way of steering the boat to get ya home in an emergency?

Just for kicks and to prove I could do it - if needed - I once brought my boat in from a mile out by just using the trim tabs for steering. Now mind you, I did STOP about 100-yards out from the beginning of the mooring area. But that was close enough for me to 'hitch' a ride to the closest dock if really needed. Once I got the hang of how the boat responded to the tabs and any cross-current, it wasn't too bad, though clearly the turns were WIDE :shock: !

Other than that, if the hydraulics were gone, one could rig up a bridle to the motor mount and have each side tied off to your stern cleats ... set it ahead and move ahead, or adjust as needed. Or, a 5-gallon bucket tied to a LOOP bridle can provide steering, by applying 'drag' to the side of the boat it is on. Move the bucket to the starboard and the boat turns to the starboard. The process is, slow the boat, move the bucket, and apply power as needed to correct your course.

I myself would put a bridle to both the OB and bucket for the OB could be used for gross turns and the bucket for fine-tuning your course and heading . Clearly one cannot maintain any speed doing this, but you'll get home . FWIW, we once brought my Dad's 30' Chris Craft home 12 nM using @ dinghy with 3hp OB as the kicker ... but, uhhhhhhhhh, the incoming tide sure helped!

 

[TopShot25]

Dale,

This is a good post and I was just waiting to see who responded to it. It also makes me think that you could come up with a few others and maybe even put them in their own forum. Maybe “Ideas for how to handle different emergencies.” My buddy had a problem one time when we got back from a trip and got the boat on the trailer, his outdrive would not come up. It took quite awhile for us to figure it out and we had to call his mechanic to finally get it done. This whole thing with the steering could be a huge problem depending on sea conditions at the time.

I see the first problem to be how to get the engine or engines straight so you can go anywhere. Then you would have to tie them up to keep them straight. Having twin engines and trim tabs, I’m sure I could get home as long as sea conditions weren’t too bad. The bucket or something similar is another great idea.

I once had my steering cable break on my 16’ glastron bowrider. I was probably about 15 miles or so from the harbor. We got the motor turned to straighten it out and tied it off. After getting the boat up on a plane my buddy and I could just move from the middle to one side or the other and the boat would just go into a smooth sweeping turn. It was actually kind of fun driving that way all the way home. Although taking a 16’ boat offshore is really enough of an adventure, I’m glad that was a simple fix. We didn’t have vessel assist back then!