All sailors start somewhere. As a teen I eagerly absorbed National Geographic stories in the late 60s of young Robin Lee Graham sailing singlehanded around the world in his tiny boat. I was infatuated. Construction plans in Popular Mechanics led me to build a sailing dinghy out of cedar ribs and plywood. Like many, I taught myself to sail, reading about the fundamentals in magazines and books. Practical knowledge came from dodging ocean-going ships and tugboats in the Fraser River just south of Vancouver, British Columbia. I was hooked, dreaming grandiose plans of a sailing future. Then life got in the way. Starting a family and career left very little time for recreation. Sailing took a distant back seat, but was always there, waiting to return.
Sailing is full of “experiences.” I’ve had two steering failures, both from hitting submerged logs. Since they were catamarans, all that was required was to disconnect the affected rudder linkage. A cat will sail adequately with one rudder, so the cruises were not interrupted.
Outboard steering works, after a fashion, if you have enough gas and waves are not too large, but with an inboard, you will need to rig something. The simplest method uses fenders and your anchor. It really works, and people have sailed thousands of miles with this sort of jury rig. See PS “Emergency Steering; Can you Jury Rig a Drogue for That?”
Hello Drew. The boat was small enough that the outboard was sufficient, and we were young enough not to know better. I don’t know if the most recent generation, with the entire internet to provide life lessons, are any better off. We learned through experience and survived!
I guess many of us look back at our youthful early sailing days and wonder, “what the hell was I thinking”? I was likewise self taught, and after becoming what I (smugly) thought was a good sailor in the early 70’s, did a lot of So Cal coastal harbor hopping in a home (but well) built 24’ Piver “Nugget” Tri. Those are pretty benign waters, but still subject to the notorious Santa Ana winds, big swells and the occasional winter storm. I was also a dedicated surfer and sailing in strong winds on a fast tri was exhilarating. I did my sailing (often over to Catalina) with never a VHS or OB auxiliary motor, which I could not afford. What an idiot! But I did always carry tools, a radio with a weather band, a signal mirror and flares. I won’t go into details, but learned the hard way that when things go wrong, they often go really wrong (the event cascade) and very quickly. I made it through a couple very dicey situations, including a rudder failure. I learned that, even on a Tri, one can steer reasonably well just using the sails. Later, in law school in Nor Cal, I taught a “Junior Skipper” course at the Cal Sailing Club in Berkeley. One of the requirements to pass the course was to be able to sail without a rudder sufficiently well to get back to the dock. It’s not pretty, and may not work in all conditions, but it can be done, and is a good skill to know. Nonetheless, you did exactly the right thing by lowering the sails and heading back to harbor. You were also lucky that your little OB fired up and ran smoothly. A situation like yours is often precisely when the motor fails to start, or run reliably. All in, glad you and your family made it back safely, with an adventure under your belt, and a great story to tell!
Hello Ronald.
Necessity is the mother of invention (and experience). I don’t know if you’ve seen my videos on You Tube but on almost all of my recent trips I video the return to my dock space at North Saanich Marina here in Sidney. I have, on occasion, sailed all the way in to a stop at the dock, just for the practice. As I drift by with just a partially rolled up genoa, guys ask if I need help, engine failure? Most would never even contemplate the practice in ideal conditions. Experience has taught me to do a lot of the “what if” games in my head when I’m out sailing. Thanks for he comment!