Complete steering loss in St Augustine inlet

[ageless]

3 of us headed back in from fishing with a seriously confused 5-7' following sea.Passing last buoy to be inside the inlet and boat snaps HARD to port with a free spinning steering wheel. Jump on the throttles but can't get the vessel to respond correctly due to rudders stuck hard starboard. Drifted back out the inlet to try to get in a better position to determine best plan. Determined she would respond better in reverse then fwd so that's what I did. It took over an hour to navigate back in where tow boat brought us back to our slip. The steering ram has apparently been rubbing on a hose that wasn't visible and it finally ruptured. I noted there are several feet of heavily rusted hard lines that I want to replace. I forgot to grab my manual, can someone identify this apparatus the lines run into?

 

[ageless]

scary moment

 

[bostonhatteras]

Thats a bleed/ purge block. The two identical fittings on the short side are where you would crack it open to bleed the system. don't necessarily need it as the system can be bled from the flare fittings too but you got it so reuse it. the lines are annealed copper. very easy to flare (single flare) and bend unless you're trying for extreme small radius. The flare fittings are reusable. clean them up with a couple hour soak in ammonia and a 3m scrub pad after. Ask the guy who makes the hydraulic line to order in brass fittings as they won't rust. The hynautic site offers this page and it has a general layout of the system.
https://boatsteer.com/assets/Hynautic_MS_Purging_Instructions.pdf

 

[motoryacht lover]

That is scary. Of course it happens when in an inlet. Glad it worked out. I will not take a closer look at my steering hoses and such after this post

 

[Captain Ralph]

That block is what Hynautic called their MSV-21 valve block.
Over pressure relief and a bleeding/by-pass option. Over pressure is diverted to the return line and reservoir.
Usually not a failure point unless trashed by debris.

Yep, our 46 year old Bert had an old hose failure a couple of years ago. Had to go below with a pipe wrench to center the rudders, then throttles and clutches all the way home from Mayport to Ortega.
For some blessed reason we made the inlet, hose parted just past the ditch crossing.

 

[Captain Ralph]

Take the old hose to any hydraulic shop for exact replacements.
Replace that poor looking Copper tubing, simple flair and fittings here.

 

[Boatsb]

Thank God I don't know enough to stay quiet.

1) the copper is refrigeration grade tubing. Not the thin walled stuff from home cheapo. It needs to be carefully flared.
2) the hose is low stretch and should be specific to the fluid and system pressure. It's hynautic / seastar rated from Parker model MSH-6 with special re usable brass fittings ( 45 degree flare)

Aso the system and autopilot should have proper valves and Ts.

 

[Pascal]

Yikes. That happened to me coming by cape Florida at 24 kts… disconnected the AP to turn in and the wheel just spun around. Was able to reengage the AP to make the turn and center the rudders before the AP pump ran out of fluid allowing me to finish with throttles. In that case it was a slow leak at the hynautic cooler.

Good call on reversing… no prop wash means the rudders aren’t as effective.

 

[bigbill]

when i replaced the copper lines on my yachtfish it was refrigeration copper tube, i believe it is a thicker wall tube. it was worth buying a whole roll than to buy pieces just long enough

 

[madhatter1]

I learned something here today. The reverse thing is now in the library of my mind. Glad you knew it and were able to get home.

 

[Pascal]

If you have zero pressure left and the ram is empty you should be able to center the rudders manually with a big wrench. Some boats have an emergency tiller for that purpose.

I still have the original 1970 copper steering pipes thru out the boat. Probably will last longer than the new stuff!

 

[JD5652]

One of the great things about this site. I learned three things today..

1. The reverse trick
2. Remember to have my 24" and 36" handy
3. Inspect my steering hydraulic lines

Thanks!

 

[Sadey]

What is the 24” and 36”, box wrench?
I saw a YouTube post where they had a steering issue. The boat had a metal tube that went between the two rudders to help center them. That I get. I don’t understand how to use a wrench to center the rudders? The reverse thing, yeah that’s in the toolbox now. Thanks for the tip!

 

[JD5652]

What is the 24” and 36”, box wrench?
I saw a YouTube post where they had a steering issue. The boat had a metal tube that went between the two rudders to help center them. That I get. I don’t understand how to use a wrench to center the rudders? The reverse thing, yeah that’s in the toolbox now. Thanks for the tip!

Sorry... meant to put in the 24" and 36" "pipe" wrench. I have two of each on the boat. I also keep set of large open/box wrenches on board as well between 1" and 2-1/8".

 

[rsmith]

I had a line blew 74nm offshore. Hatteras ran the steering lines around the sides of the hull before the cockpit liner and cap went on. When we got the boat the PO had a 10’ pvc tube in the ER with every side tube in it. But the pinhole was outboard of the exhaust and I could barely reach it. I found a compression coupling in with my misc box of fittings and cut the line and put that in. Didn’t have enough ATF to fill the system so I used 10/30 oil I had for the generators. Worked fine bled the system and no harder to turn the wheel. I ran all new lines under the back deck and abandoned the ones in the hull. I never did flush the system out and the engine oil is probably still in there 30 years later.

 

[ageless]

I do have pipe wrenches onboard and centering the rudders was a conversation, sea conditions wouldn't allow.

Thanks to everyone for the response. I certainly intend to utilize the bleed box and will update progress on the fix

 

[ageless]

1/2” lines ran. 3/8” once my back allows. Still have to secure everything. I didn’t realize my helper ran the 3/8” through the same ER bulkhead passage as a 1/2”, that has to be redone, uggggg. The thought of one of these flares/fittings leaking when I fill sickens me. Lol

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Nice work

 

[bostonhatteras]

before filling with oil, pressurize the system with only air and that will tell you if you have a leak.

 

[ageless]

before filling with oil, pressurize the system with only air and that will tell you if you have a leak.

GREAT IDEA!!! Thank you