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Post by MalcolmP on Dec 20, 2008 17:37:08 GMT
There is an article in the new (Jan 09) edition of Practical Boat Owner written by Chris Gillings who owns a Sun Odyssey 40.3 called Juniper J.
On his delivery trip he lost steering just as he was about to enter Brighton Marina in F5/7, not nice, but fortunately all was well as he was able to rig the emergency tiller (The quadrant autopilot was also still functioning) whilst the tiller was rather short he and his wife were able to jointly steer the boat into the Marina with it
The reason was simply that the stainless nuts that should lock onto the end of the steering cable at the quadrant had both fallen off. Apparently Jeanneau fit 2 nuts and lock them together.
As the article states it would be more foolproof to have nylock nuts
I will be checking mine before my next trip
The autopilot is a good backup in the open sea, but I would not like to try to berth using it
Malcolm
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Post by MartyB on Dec 21, 2008 6:23:44 GMT
Malcolm
I read in a local rag's LTE the other day, that a boat, granted a power boat, lost it steering of the two engines, I believe a throttle cable linkage, because the std nut fell off! Darn near went into a rock seawall, but fortunately only hit the sand before. Otherwise, they would have lost a million $$$$ yacht for lack of the manufacture spending another 25cents or equal for a nylock nut vs a std nut! Crazy!
Marty
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Post by grantgoulding on Dec 23, 2008 12:40:53 GMT
I regulary check my steering as have had the cable work lose whilst on a trip. There is a good test to tell if its getting lose if you have two wheels - hold one still and see if you can move the other- if its just a bit lose you will find a fair bit of movement!
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Post by brandleside on Jan 1, 2009 18:51:49 GMT
I had a good news/ bad news call when my 2006 SO37 was on charter on the West coast of Scotland last season.
Good news - emergency tiller works .....
Bad news - steering cable failure.
In this case, the cable broke because it was frayed - it had probably come off the turning block below the pedestal and got sawn through with use.
I got new cables made up by local riggers and now keep a spare cable on board for just such an emergency.
Worthwhile having such a relatively cheap spare which takes up very little space.
Can confirm OE double nut arrangement - nyloc locking nut preferable.
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Post by Trevor on Jan 1, 2009 20:12:07 GMT
When my SO36i was commissioned about this time last year, I crawled all over the boat in excitement to learn more about my new baby. When I inspected the steering quadrant, I noticed that the commissioning yard had made a very serious error when assembling the steering cable to the rudder quadrant. The photo below tells the story.  This photo was taken through an inspection opening at the rear of the aft cabin. The rollers under the steering position are vertically displaced to allow the cable to crossover to the quadrant without rubbing on one another. If the cables are placed in the wrong grooves in the quadrant instead of missing one another, they actually rub on one another with every turn of the wheel. I fixed this problem myself after advising the agent by undoing the cables and moving then to the other groove. If I hadn't they would fray and weaken for absolute certain. As a quick check, on an SO36i, when looking at the quadrant through the inspection hatch inside the liferaft locker, the cable on the STARBOARD side of the quadrant should be in the UPPER groove. If it can happen to my boat then I guess it can happen elsewhere and I think this is a very serious issue that new boat owners might just have a look at to ensure that the assembly has been done correctly. It is a simple mistake with very serious consequences. Happy sailing, Trevor |
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Post by rxc on Jan 4, 2009 17:02:09 GMT
I would also suggest that you make sure that the autopilot throw angle is limited to 5 degrees less than the max limit set by the physical stops. I lost the quadrant on my SO43DS about 60 miles west of Bermuda, in "heavy weather", and we had to steer with the emergency tiller in 12 ft seas for 12 hours till we got into St. Georges. After we fixed the quadrant in Bermuda and continued east, we eventually reached the Azores, we discovered that the dealer who had initially set up the boat had not limited the autopilot throw angle, and the autopilot was consistently pushing the quadrant into the stops. It eventually fractured the bracket that holds the quadrant to the rudder shaft.
It was interesting to discover that the autopilot was structurally stronger than the quadrant.
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Post by bill42i on Jan 10, 2009 2:33:07 GMT
Thank you for that information - I will certainly check the steering on my 42i before sailing next season. One has to wonder what other nasty surprises Jeanneau/the commissioning yard may have built into our yachts. Someone should be held responsible for this one!
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Post by jamescal on Jul 25, 2010 14:02:56 GMT
I snapped a throttle cable going through Crinan Canal in my SO 37 3 weeks ago. result was no propulsion and a boat stranded between 2 Locks. We got it to a pontoon and an engineer replaced the cable which was a foot shorter than the previous one. Does anyone know whether this will compromise the cable (ie Im now using a shorter cable)?
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Post by markevans on Jun 16, 2019 22:59:48 GMT
we lost steering today at Chichester bar due to the cables coming off the sheaves. Fortunately we had removed the liferaft locker and created l access to quadrant via original elec locker on 43DS, so was able to fix to complete trip without resorting to autopilot or emergency tiller but stressful nontheless. Since i can feel the odd strand brea where they caught on the sheave brackets i will needto replace them, improve tension and use nylock nuts thid time. DO i just take the current ones to a rigger to make up?
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