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This sailing technique saved my butt (Why does nobody teach this?)
May 24, 2026 · 24 min · 119K views · South Pacific Ocean
Sailboat cuts through rolling sea under overcast sky
What this video covers
James Evenson sails a catamaran from Ecuador to Easter Island — an 18-day, roughly 1,800-mile passage — after his Raymarine ST-4000 autopilot fails twice, first shattering its internal ring when the boat accelerates onto a beam reach, then exploding again three hours after a fiberglass-and-epoxy repair.0:31 With no viable option to turn back against the Humboldt Current and two crew members unable to hand-steer the full distance, Evenson rigs a bungee-cord steering system as an improvised autopilot.4:55 The technique uses two bungee cords attached to hard points in the cockpit and to opposite sides of the steering wheel, with tension on each side adjusted until the boat oscillates in a controlled S-track of roughly 20 degrees to leeward and 10 degrees to windward.9:53 It works only on a beam reach or broad reach — not dead upwind or downwind — and must be retuned whenever wind speed or direction shifts, sometimes requiring an hour of adjustment.12:23 On a catamaran the system is harder to balance than on a monohull because all kinetic energy transfers directly to the rudders without the relief of heeling.13:11 Four bungee cords were consumed over the passage; chafe from contact with any surface destroys them quickly.16:01 Evenson later used the same technique on his Oyster Marine 485 during a 24-hour autopilot repair when its linear drive chewed through its worm gears.16:44 The sheet-to-tiller method and the writings of Lin and Larry Pardee are cited as related references.8:47 Carrying four new, packaged bungee cords on every offshore passage is the practical lesson Evenson draws from both failures.16:01
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