Seawind REBUILT Our CATAMARAN STEERING Under WARRANTY
While sailing 12,000 miles our new catamaran’s steering system was failing one part at a time putting us in potentially dangerous situations. After discussion and research Seawind agreed to refit the steering while we were in remote French Polynesia, hopefully freeing us to answer the call of adventure once more. This video has been a LONG time in the making and we are so excited to share it with you and more importantly now, focus on where we want to go instead of where we can go.
How we got here…In 2020 we took delivery of a new Seawind 1600 catamaran, hull number 6, in Miami. We took our first big trip 6 months later sailing 1200 miles up the US east coast to Rhode Island. Here the auto pilot ram failed for the first time. At the height of supply chain issues there were no units available so we hand steered throughout New England then down to Annapolis where we picked up a new autopilot ram at the Annapolis boat show. We departed Annapolis for Ft. Lauderdale and just outside of Charleston the center fulcrum pin broke, leaving us to hand steer for the final 36 hours. We communicated the failure to Seawind and they sent a new pin for us to install. With our eyes set on the Pacific we sailed to Panama, and during the 10 months we were there Seawind enlisted Gurit the designer of the steering to conduct a system review. We still wanted to cross the Pacific so Seawind sent us a reinforced gear box and center fulcrum pin to install as a temporary measure. We set sail for the Marquesas in French Polynesia and about 1,000 miles into the trip the autopilot ram failed. We installed our backup unit but that failed as well. Fortunately we had three amazing crew members on board who without skipping a beat agreed to two hour hand steering shifts for the remaining 3,000 miles of the trip. We arrived safely in the Marquesas where our crew departed and received the news there were no rams available. We hand steered approximately 1500 miles throughout French Polynesia to Tahiti where an upgraded T3 autopilot ram from Seawind was waiting for us. By this time Gurit had completed the review and Seawind had already begun refitting the boats that were in need. Our refit was scheduled for April but we needed to sail back to the Marquesas for cyclone season. We gambled once again and sailed approximately 700 miles to the Marquesas and it was on our way back to Tahiti via the Tuamotus that 3 of the 4 bolts holding the gudgeon bracket and our rudder sheared off. Thankfully we had parts on board and friends in the anchorage who helped us reinstall the gudgeons, cassette and rudder. With this repaired we were able to sail to Tahiti for our much needed steering refit which is what you’re here to see.
To see all the videos in the steering system saga watch this playlist!
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