pan pan, loss of autopilot and rudder control

dear all ,

I have to report a story I wish I wouldn't , but that it ended in the best possible way with lessons useful for us all.

Yesterday we were sailing from syracuse to corfu. In the middle of the day , passing through the wind stream going through the messina straight, we experienced typical Mediterranean conditions: short waves and gusty winds up to 25kt.

mistake #1: the long and narrow window in the side , going from the chart locker to the inside table , was shut down but not closed properly with all the locks...

A wave crashed on the port side: nothing dramatic, but some water leaked in, I would guess 1 liter or so. when we saw it, I immediately closed it - but unfortunately I didn't realise what was going to happen shortly after.

Some of the water , maybe less than a liter, fell above the chart table cabinet. Then, entered into the grid , falling just above the open Wurth 12V panel we know well...

disaster #1: the wurth started blinking and relays went clicking wild. We partially lost some of the channels, including the navigation electronics and the autopilot that disconnected.

Immediately, my fellows on deck notified me of the situation and they took control of the starboard helm. As you know from the previous post, we had experienced a chain failure on the port rudder , with a new chain waiting for me in corfu...

my (wrong) call was that we kept having a double redundancy for the steering control, the starboard wheel and the autopilot, that would have made possible a safe passage (we all know we have a single rudder anyway...)

After 10 minutes of hand steering when I was trying to fix and recover the wurth, the second disaster happened.

disaster #2: the starboard chain linking the wheel to the rudder broke within 48h from the port chain. Exactly the same modality, despite the fact we had opened the electronics console , inspected it visually (but without dismounting it) and greased it with a spray lithium grease for chains.

Now, our double redundancy had been erased in the arc of 10 minutes , and we found ourselves drifting in the middle of the ionian sea, 44NM from the nearest harbour.

My friends were able to furl the jib and settle a small reefed main. With the help of the waldner brake, we fixed a boom angle that allowed us to heave to and stabilise the boat.

The first attempt to restore the wurth panel to restore the autopilot control took about 30 minutes , but was finally unsuccessful. The more I was drying the open pcb and displacing the seawater with a specific electronics spray, the more the twinkling of controls reduced the functionality of the board itself. At the end , ALL the channels of the wurth stopped working, including those that were working just after the accident. As we all know , the wurth is monolithic: you loose control of the buttons , and ALL the boat is affected , including vital elements like the autopilot, water pump, satellite antennas. The fuses were all OK and ready to go , but the relays couldn't be activated ...

Now, we were in deep troubles, so a pan pan was issued on the VHF (without GPS coordinates, they also depend on the wurth!). The Italian coastguard was very reactive , and sent from Catania (50NM) a "Motovedetta" in our rescue. But, as they clarified and we understood later when we saw the little boat, these boats are designed to rescue people , not boats. So we had to find a solution to save Andrew...

As some of you know , I am an active member of the forum. With the help of the information we had exchanged over time, I knew I had to reconnect at least the autopilot drive , the nac, the mfd, the navigation electronics. FYI I had manually splitted the inertial gyroscope onto a different fuse, to keep the forward network active while at harbour.  So , the system would be limited to "follow up" (FU) mode. Who has read the manual knows what it is!

And so we did: with the help of red and wire cables and 5 ports wagos I attached to the big entrance screws carrying 12V that feed the wurth power to the lines mentioned above, that I identified by labels and data from the original boat manuals and data exchanged here in other threads.

Now the autopilot works...but only on follow-up mode , e.g. touching on the mfd screen left /right to move the rudder towards left or right by few degrees....exercise this mode when you can, it's not that easy!

While I was communicating  with the Italian coastguard continuously , my friends reverted direction and traveled to Siracusa in shifts for steering, about 44NM away, going through the same high winds and waves from the strait, escorted by the Motovedetta from Catania first , and from one from the Siracusa jurisdiction approaching the harbour (an incredible historical bay).

please don't forget that also the navigation lights are on the wurth, and the anchor too!, so the authorities didn't want to create any danger to navigation. Admittedly , we also used a pocket 2NM battery powered tricolor light (the one for the dinghy) on top of a 2m hook . And surely the spreader lights, that are on a classic wall switch that wasn't bothered at all by the little water that had entered, because it's closed!

To make the long story short , a pilot boat guided us into the docks, our arrival booked and coordinated by the Italian coast guard. indeed , they considered anchoring unsafe (the anchor winch is on the wurth too, can your believe it?) because the boat would have partial manouverability in case of bad weather.

To make the story shorter,  now we are safe and harboured in the wonderful Siracusa.

Lessons learnt on my side:

1)  the wurth is a single point of failure that is inadmissible for an offshore boat. A series of mechanical switches with a fuse would have done a much better job in the situation, and could have been recovered much more easily.

2) the design of the chart table cabinet , below a window that can be opened, with the ventilation grid right above the open wurth électronics, is criminal. But let's call it inadmissible to be gentle with the designers...

3) there should be at least a water protection around the critical electronics that's not present on the wurth (ais and radios kept working flawlessly). A water protection for ingress into the cabinet , and a second water protection around this PCB that's fully exposed.

4) the chains in the steering system need to be inspected and lubrificated regularly, in particular those that are not accessible. Keep chain or full linkages spares on your boat , replacement is as easy as  in your bycicle...why the manufacturer doesn't indicate that's required and mandatory?

5) The quality of the chains is doubtful, the system is probably not from jefa. The first chain showed corrosion, and the second chain will be inspected today. It snapped with negligible load, no noises, very smooth movements before, and no  notice...I sail 99% of time with the autopilot, so there is no load on these chains!

6) Inspect all your windows before sailing, but in particular the one above the chart table...I would even add: the nearby window is above the main PCB, and it has again AC ventilation holes right above the large card. So, both port side windows MUST be closed for safe navigation!!!!

7) the wonderful and professional job of the Italian coast guard....difficult to say more than thank you.

I am writing this long message to avoid this issue to happen to other people. 

And if somebody can advice me on a different solution to replace the wurth completely, I am definitely going to adopt a design that will keep the failure localised to few channels and that I can replace /displace easily to avoid catastrophic consequences that may have been dramatic in different circumstances....the benefit of a relay controlled by a capacitive button  to avoid lifting a switch is simply none.

in due time I will provide with pictures and more details...

Well managed. My main concerns for long passages has been loosing the rudder to damage. We carry a Seabrake drogue to use for steering in such an emergency. I know a cruiser who was on a rally to PNG from Australia and the organizer made all boats have a drogue. This guy hit something when on the seawards side of the Barrier Reef north of Cairns and successfully used the drogue to steer the yacht back to Cairns (about 100nm).  Another friend just used the same Seabrake as a sea anchor whilst crossing from NZ to Fiji when they encountered strong winds (max 58kn). A handy thing to have onboard. Did you overwinter your 575 in Sicily - Marina Di Ragusa? We wintered there 3 years. We always loved visiting Syracuse. Good luck on the repairs.  

I think the Jordon series drogue may cause too much drag to be useful for steering. Indeed our Seabrake 48 is a little big for steering but it was the only size I could buy at the time. The correct size for us seems to be the 36 according to Seabrake. The larger size 48 would be great as a sea anchor so we will probably get a size 36 as well once we get to Fiji or NZ.