TOPIC: An exciting story - loss of steering at speed

Gregg and I went out yesterday for a little romp on the Hudson. Figured nice calm day, no problem, no wind, would be great. Sometimes I don't know what to think about the Hudson. We went upstream, passed a big oceanliner going real slow downstream, then got past it to huge waves in a terrible amplitude perpendicular to the shore for a long distance, maybe a 1/2 mile or more. It's like "Where did this come from?"

Anyways, we get past the waves to flat water again and speed up through Albany. We get up past the lower Troy bridge and I suggest to Gregg he drive back. He's excited initially, but loses his excitement as he gets it up on plane at WOT. It's not power steering! He wants to hand it back to me because he says he's not comfortable, but I say you're not ever going to be comfortable if you don't drive it, so he keeps going and does great.

We come up to this big oceanliner going downstream and he hands the controls over to me to pass him. Okay. I get over his wakes, then open it up and start to trim it out. I see a kayaker to our left and wave, and just as I do, the boat (at speed) lurches sharply left. Gregg and I are both thrown out of our seats. We're heading right towards the kayaker and and all I can remember is his eyes about the size of silver dollars. I realize immediately I have no steering and pull the throttle to neutral. Sure enough, I lost the nut that holds the cable to the motor. We were close to the launch anyways, so we wrapped a dock line around the assembly to get us back to the launch at slow speed.

I hurt too much last night from being tossed around in the boat to even look at it. I went out just now and put two double thin nyloks on it. I don't think I'll lose it again. Nevertheless it is something I'm gonna be checking from time to time!

Frank

wow frank you guys were lucky,..but not as lucky as ,lolthe kayaker

i always think of that with my original 50 year old cable and pulley steering. thank god you didn't panic and grabbed the throttle. ron

I knew what had happened Ron, so did pick myself up and immediately grab the throttle to get it in neutral. All this happened very quickly.

Frank

frank im so glad you are both ok,it could have been a bad accident,thats scary,john

Two words - kill switch...

Thanks John! It could have been a bad accident if I had swerved into that 700' ocean going tanker! That poor guy in the kayak, he started laughing when he saw we had a mechanical problem.

Everything happened VERY quickly. Yes, we were lucky.

Frank

Chinewalker wrote:

Two words - kill switch...

I never leave the dock without it if I'm flying my STV, good advise !!

chinewalker nailed it. They are required by APBA and now you know why. Also, nylon stop nuts are meant as one time use. Thread it on and leave it. If you need to remove it....throw it away...and install a new one. I'm checking mine on the 1350 tonight. I know it's been re-used.

The 'Glassic gods were definitely with you!!!!

gezzz, omg sounds like my luck (rocks-water/rocks-water), you had some angels riding with you that's for sure!

That sounds like to first time I put the Stinger on my boat and had it trimed in all the way and hit sombodys else's wake. The boat went down into it and just turned with the angle of the wake and tossed the wife into my lap. Almost needed the tolit paper that time.
Mike aka pathfinderz1

If I remember right, mine happen with the Thunderbird and the steering was cabled, and one side snapped off the drum, the motor was at wot when this happen and the torte of the motor twisted it to one side causing the t-bird to dig in on her stern causing the bow to chase, which put us hard over to on side. Now that in it own-self doesn't sound fun, having this happen on the narrow Erie Canal....one moment you see water..next the rock bank...more water..more rocks...as the spin continued..pulling myself back to the controls I was able to slap it in to neutral as the spin slowly stopped...

Why have all the fun stop there...

seeing the cable had broken I pulled out slack from the wheel, put on a pair of my trucker gloves grab the cables and put it back in gear at a slow idle just to find out...pulling the right cable caused the boat to go left...and visea-versa made for an interesting trip back to the landing....which was in an alcove off the canal, which meant some precise turning...that right..this left.

learned something tho, it not that hard to replace the cables using a 50 foot dog tie out from the hardware store....

get a new/old boat...replace the cables.