you have to collapse one cylinder whilst expanding the other, much more effort than steering a car that lost it's PS

For my issue when I lost the power steering, it was more than just the "oh crap" factor going from power to no-power assist. I was just traveling in a straight line with just a minimal amount of light wind chop and the boat still wanted to make that abrupt turn. At that time I had the dual hydraulic ram set up on deep TRS drives, although it was just external hydraulic steering and NOT the full hydraulic to the helm set up. That day as soon as I got back to shore I did call up IMCO to order a new full hydraulic to the helm system. I would like to believe that would make a difference under those circumstances.

I wasn't going too fast but somehow I lost pressure in the hydraulic system and my steering wheel just spun freely. The boat kept going straight and without much effort I was able to bring the boat to a stop. I put ~ 30lb of pressure back in the system and I was back in business. I still don't know what cause the pressure drop but I suspect it had dropped slowly over time. Since then it has not been an issue beyond being one more thing to check before heading out and I now carry a bike pump onboard :-)

I had air in the system that got trapped in the helm that resulted in a spinning steering wheel. The boat stayed on course but I was unable to turn any direction. A little scary at 150.