April 7. 2014, Self Steering

An integral part of long distance sailing these days is the auto-pilot.  Plugged into the GPS and powered through a generator, it basically sails the boat, keeping it on course through wind shifts and rolling seas leaving the crew free to catch a nap, eat meals together, etc.  Of course, being old school, Rhapsody does not have all the electronic stuff.  So basically, we hand steered almost all of the 3,000 miles.


We actually do have 4 or even 5 auto-pilots
 Rhapsody.  When the sails are balanced just right, Rhapsody will actually steer herself.  This requires someone in the cockpit to keep an eye on things but no heavy work.  Of course the sails must be perfectly set with a steady wind and easy seas.

 Henry and Hank.  2 lengths of rope that tie to cleats on each side of the aft deck.  The other end loops through a polished and tarred piece of wood which can be slid back and forth to adjust the length.  One or both of these ropes loop around the tiller, holding Rhapsody on course.  This requires a period of careful adjustment to get it just right and cannot be trusted for long but comes in very handy when the helmsman needs to leave the tiller to take care of a sail, grab a cup of coffee or take a quick potty break.  Also helps to take the strain off of the back and arms when fighting heavy winds.  This is our heavy muscle option and is actually used a lot.

Louise (“every little breeze seems to whisper Louise”) and her big sister Lucille.  This is our expensive go-to option for self steering.  It is a Monitor wind vane, it includes a stainless cage contraption bolted to the stern of the boat.  There is a rudder on the bottom and a plastic vane on the top and an arrangement of ropes that run through pulleys and attach to the tiller.  We have use this successfully in the past  and Alan was looking forward to setting it and letting it take us all the way to the South Pacific.  Unfortunately we cannot get it to work reliably.  I am not quite sure what the problem is.  Too much wind?  Following seas?  A course too close to the wind?  For whatever reason we only get it to work sporadically and so cannot leave it unattended.   Apparently when we sail down wind there is not enough wind to keep it steady and when we are on a reach the little jib that we are using since our main jib ripped in half is not big enough to balance the mizzen.  Louise and I do not get along well.  Alan gets her to work but when I come on duty she either takes us off in the wrong direction or just pops loose.

Fred.  This is an actual electronic auto pilot that hooks into the radar.  I love Fred.  He and I get along just fine.  The problem is that he uses battery power which is in short supply so we don’t hook him up unless absolutely necessary.

The last version os self steering in what I call the yoga pose self steer.  If I can get my arms and legs twisted and braced just so, I can balance the tiller against my hip and do not actually have to hold on.

But like I said, most of the time we just hang on and steer.  After the first few days my back and arms ache and I am getting new calluses on my hands.  I discover that I can balance just on the corner of the cockpit and get some pseudo yoga stretches in.  This seems to help and as the course and wind changes the aches move around to different muscles and little by little go away.   From time to time i remember to sit up straight and use my stomach muscles instead of my back.  You would think after so many weeks of this I would have the strongest abs ever, but no, the little round belly persists.