Sailing The Rip into Port Philip Victoria

[GILow]

Also have you asked around to see if you can find crew?


Sent from my iPhone so apologies for weird autocorrect typos.

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by GILow

Is it too late to grab something like a Tp1000 instead? A bit small for the boat but it should cope in most reasonable conditions. Being self contained there would be no need to interface it with anything.


Sent from my iPhone so apologies for weird autocorrect typos.

The st1000 is also self contained, but the steel hull screws with the internal fluxgate badly.

[RaymondR]

My experience with the ST4000 wheel pilot was that both the head and the little electric motor are fairly tough pieces of gear but the planetary gearbox they use which is driven by the motor has nylon gears in it which tend to fail. If it is still making any sort of noise when you switch it to auto or press the +/- 10 buttons it is most likely the gears rather than the motor itself.


If you could get another set of nylon gears they are pretty easy to replace. A photo of the offending item would assist.

[Jim Cate]

RC, I won't offer advice about fixing your ST4000. Those drives are simply crappy... I've been through a few myself. We can talk later about alternative linear drives that would use your extant 'brains".

Meanwhile, DO read the stuff in Letcher's book on sheet to tiller steering. All it wouldtake for your boat is some elastic (surgical tubing or Thera-bands are best by far, also can use the rubbers from spearguns), and a few bits of string and a couple of blocks to transfer some load from your mainsheet to the tiller, opposed by the elastic.

When our Autohelm 2000 died two days north of hawaii en route to SF, I cobbled one up out of stuff on board, and it got us the remaining 18 days back, steering for 15-30 minutes at a time without adjustment. And this on an s&s 30, fin keel, skeg rudder. Should be easy on your boat.

And as John says in his book, " you might as well spend the time fooling with the sheet to tiller stuff as sitting at the helm..." or something like that.

Jim

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

RC, I won't offer advice about fixing your ST4000. Those drives are simply crappy... I've been through a few myself. We can talk later about alternative linear drives that would use your extant 'brains".

Jim

I agree with Jim regarding the crappiness of the drive parts, both the wheel and tiller types. However I have found the heads to give excellent service and the one I am using at the moment with a DIU wheel drive fabricated from an electric bike motor, an auto timing belt and a frying pan has given good service for 20 odd years.

There are a number of manufacturers for linear actuators which produce 12V IP65 rated versions for use in hospital beds which may do the job of tiller steering. The last one I used was manufactured by a Danish company called Linex on a computer controlled high pressure pumping system which operated for about 4 months. It opened and closed a hydraulic valve fairly often however since they use a nylon nut on a threaded rod for their linear action they would probably not be a long term solution, the largish tiller steering linear actuators I have seen for tiller pilots have a recirculating ball mechanism which is long wearing.

If I was looking for a cheap, easy solution to your problem I would look for a small 12V winch and rig it as an endless line with a piece of chain in the middle to fit into a slot in a piece of alloy T or angle on the tiller.

[El Pinguino]

Two options...
sail up to Hastings ( my choice as it is within the world as we know it) or Yaringa ... and get it sorted ie buy new stuff...

Or sail home single handed .... do-able... I used to be able to get my tiller steered Vertue to look after herself by just using a bit of string to keep a bit of weather helm on... would work ok for an hour or two if wind was steady ...
Then get clear of the E-W traffic ( both PPH to the Prom and Prom / Otway and vv) ... heave to and have a kip for an hour or two when you need to.. not as if its a long sea passage.

Or .. get crew.

OK .. so thats three... my numeracy skills have never been the same since that croc took most of my fingers up the Rio Pongo all those years ago....

[lockie]

RC;

If you are still stuck, call me on 0411-230-060, as I have a spare Simrad TP22.

Cheers, Graeme

[Rustic Charm]

Hi guys,

Well, I survived easy enough. I'm exhausted though and only just got home. Had a couple of drama's with dirty fuel and ultimately a dead engine. I'm gonna sleep now and I'll respond tomorrow.

Cheers.

[lockie]

Good on you RC. Soloing is possible with some learnings of fatigue management.

Looking forward to the report.

[Rustic Charm]

Well, I left Flinders on Sunday morning at 6:30am after trying to get the St1000 calibrated. It simply would not work on the trim tab and was not powerful enough to operate the rudder. So, with bungy strap in hand I set off in a calm, windless but sunny morning. The bungy strap sort of worked, but if I left the helm any longer than five minutes I'd return to find RC on a course back to Melbourne.

I helmed until 1am Monday morning, by which time I was getting really tired. The engine stalled then and when I checked the filters they were BLACK. I checked the fuel tank depth and I was down to 80 ltrs of my 200 ltrs tank. I'd set off from Queenscliffe with 180 ltrs. I changed the filters and bled it and off we went again. But by 3am I was so incredibly tired and cold that I looked at the chart plotter and realised I was again steering toward Melbourne. It seems I'd nodded off without realising it. I stopped the motor put head to pillow and a few minutes later it was 5am. I'd slept for two hours and according to the plotter had not moved at all. My cabin was lit up as I was only a mile from the Lolla gas platform which was lit up like a Christmas tree. Very pretty sight.

So, at 5am I set off again and as cold as it was I watched the sun rise. The sun rays were a welcome sight and I felt much warmer and more awake because of it. By 7am, 24 hours after leaving i realised I was actually enjoying this. I just wish I could have gone below to pass the time. Boredom was my worse problem.

Around 11am I had to change the filters again, and again around 2pm. I was then down to my second last set of filters. So I changed them and this time I put made the decision to disconnect the lines from my dirty keel tank and connect them into my 20 ltrs portable heater tank which had about ten litres left in it. I was by now about 20 miles out of the Tamar River. I text my uncle and asked him to meet me at the Low Head Pilot Station with an extra 20 litres just in case I needed it. But, as I pulled up the engine stalled and refused to start again.

I went to bed at about midnight and the next morning a local mechanic came to have a look. Very helpful young fella who showed me what he was doing so I could learn what to do if I had not made it back. After some time he concluded that whilst diesel was going to my injector pump, it was not then forwarding fuel to the injectors. Aero start in the inlet got the motor starting quickly. His advice was that more likely water had gone through the line and stuffed the pump.

Given a lot of problems I've had with this Volvo Penta 2003T, I've concluded its time to repower rather than spend an approx $5000 to do everything that's needed and then still have something break when out to sea.

Tuesday afternoon a friend arrived and he towed me up the river to Beauty Point.

So, that's my trip. I enjoyed most of it. Would have been so much better if I had a reliable auto pilot.

However, when I left Queenscliffe with my St4000 initially working, I had a fright in the 20+ winds. I couldn't get the main up because of the lazy jacks, and whilst trying one large wave after another knocked me over (? 45 degrees?). I regretted being on my own at that time. The two meter seas were really uncomfortable.

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by lockie

RC;

If you are still stuck, call me on 0411-230-060, as I have a spare Simrad TP22.

Cheers, Graeme

Thanks Lockie for the offer. I would have taken you up on the offer but I had already left

[hoppy]

Sounds like a challenging first solo passage. Chances are, future ones will be a comparative breeze

So I guess there is a lightly used ST1000 on the market shortly.

EV-100 tiller time?

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by Rustic Charm

then I had fuel problems which has resulted in me needing a new engine. So I won't be sailing for a couple of years.

ouch.... just saw this in the other thread

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by hoppy

Sounds like a challenging first solo passage. Chances are, future ones will be a comparative breeze

So I guess there is a lightly used ST1000 on the market shortly.

EV-100 tiller time?

No, I'll hang on to the st1000 to use on whatever my trim tab will be. I'm considering making it into the Lego design Matt suggested.

Ev-100 will definately be on the cards too.

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by hoppy

ouch.... just saw this in the other thread

Yeah, it was in the post above. It's not just the injector pump.

It leaks oil, in more places than I know where to fix
It drips raw water
The water pump needs replacement
It needs four new engine mounts
A new exhaust elbow with the ss insert
A new fuel filter mount (as bleed screw is stripped)

On top of that, I need to decide whether to slip it and cut a huge side out if the keel to get to the fuel tank to clean and seal it, or have two plastic custom tanks made up and mothball the keel tank.

So, lots of internal work to do.