The pirate replies, "Arrrrgh! It be drivin' me nuts!"
Oh, yeah, I got the steering fixed! I went to the store where they sell boat stuff, and picked up 4 fathoms (thats 24 ft. to you land lubbers) of Sta-Set X line. Sta-Set X is a high performance line for halyards and other running rigging. It has a 12 strand braided Dyneema (another brand of spectra) covered by a braided polyester cover for UV and abrasion protection. Dyneem is 5x stronger than steel cable of equivalent diameter. I got 5/16" line, not for the 3 1/2 ton breaking strength, but because the diameter best matched the drum and sheaves of the steering system. I rove the line through the steering column sheave, and then seized the ends to two stainless thimbles leaving enough left over to be able to adjust/tighten the system. We got a wooden steering wheel a while ago and have been waiting to be able to use it. We think it looks quite dashing! I knew the line would have about 3-5% stretch so I waited to low tide when I knew the rudder would be sitting in the mud and give me some resistance to work out some slack and stretch the line. I retighted the line and on the 4th of July we took the boat out. It was really nice to not have to do acrobatics to work the tiller to steer the boat and keep on course. Even docking was much much smoother.
