Jeannius said:Great report so far. Well done to The Moorings on getting you a replacement boat so quickly.
Would be interested to know what type of almost new boat had a problem that came with a diagnosis of “it’s bad” rather than the more usual it's 'irie mon'. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />
The boat was a less than 5 year old Leopard 48. The issue was a binding rudder on the starboard side when under load. Given it is a charter boat there is no telling if that rudder may have contacted something on a previous trip. So I would not put that one on the boat design.
The problem was compounded by the autopilot driving the helm via a chain to sprocket on the back side of the helm. The combination of force provided by the autopilot, the large size of the sprocket and some free play in the helm, the autopilot chain departed the sprocket. Fortunately the chain to the rudders never came off.
If I ever own my own boat I will make sure the autopilot servo drives the rudders directly and not thru the entire steering system.
