Namadgi is expected to arrive in the Tasmanian capital just after lunch-time on Tuesday, providing it gets through the 70km/h winds around Tasman Island.

It appeared the Canberra Ocean Racing Club entrant would be forced to retire when one of the links in the boat's steering column snapped at 4am on Sunday.

The crew reacted quickly, however, switching on the boat's autopilot, dubbed "Jessica" in honour of Australian round-the-world sailor Jessica Watson.

That allowed the boat to stabilise its course and continue through Bass Strait, regarded as the most dangerous stretch of water in the race, while the crew did repairs.

Namadgi crew member Peter Ottesen compared losing the steering on a yacht to losing steering on a car travelling 100km/h on a highway.

"We count ourselves very lucky," Ottesen said. "Normally in situations like this, it leads to other damage because once the boat's out of control it wants to do its own thing.

"In most cases, you wouldn't have been able to fix it on the water and we would have had to make our way to land."

Ottesen said the incident was most likely due to wear and tear, occurring when the crew member at the helm turned into the breeze with the spinnaker up.

"We knew the auto pilot was connected still to the rudder and was independent to the steering wheels and so we tested that and it worked," he said.

"We identified the problem, found bits and pieces and made a repair and we think it will get us to the end. As a consequence, we've had to sail slightly less intensively than we otherwise might have."

At 5.30pm on Monday, Namadgi was 124 nautical miles from Hobart and travelling at 7.6 knots.

Ottesen said their arrival time would depend on the weather as they passed Tasman Island, the most southern point in the race.

"We could get some gale-force south-westerly winds which will be on the nose," he said. "It will be in our face as we go around and we have to tack into that.

"Gale-force winds are more than 35 knots or about 70km/h, so it could be tricky."

Fellow Canberra yacht C.Q.R.iT Inca was two nautical miles in front of Namadgi.