Stranded in Moss landing!!!

[kirley]

Due to wind ( 35-39 mph) thought it prudent to truck our recently purchased albin 31 to moss landing ca. from Ventura ca. (280 miles) Every thing went great, trucker showed up on time lifts worked out and we were in the water thursday am 4/18, found our new dock and went out for our 1st cruise/shake down cruise, motored out of the harbor about 1/2 mile and tried the auto pilot out, Problem!!! Boat would only go in starboard circles!?!? Called people' including previous owner, quick response but no answers???????? So shut down complete boat all electronics off and started anew, boat still going in starboard circles!!! At this point admiral is ready to call vessel assist, beach is comming up fast, WAIT; removed aft deck box and checked rudder, and low and behold, clevis and pin and spacer washers on deck!!! Who puts a clevis pin in, from the bottom up? Trucking caused the pin to vibrate out and gravity did it's deed and left us stranded, and if I wasn't mechanical, vessal assist would be $1000 richer! BTW clevis is now installed from top, if pin comes out again, clevis will stay in place and life is much easier!!! This Albin---WOW what a boat!!! We love it, we are tickled buying the 31vs the 28, about twice the $ and about 3x's the boat! They put together a very nice boat! BTW caught a limit of king salmon 4/20, boat fishes well! Can't say enough about this boat, BIG SMILES!

[DougSea]

Glad it all worked out!

You had me confused at first since I was wondering why you didn't just shut down the autopilot.

Takes me back to a little incident in my youth when the steering on our 13 whaler failed as I went to make a high speed 90 degree turn in a marsh. 5 seconds later I'm sitting high and dry watching the tide go out! Fun.

Best of luck with the new boat.