2 instead of 1 ????? CONTROLS

[Guest]

Could anyone enlighten me as to why my boat has seperate gear & throttle Morse controls.These were obviously a prefered arrangement the previous owner had requested from new. Any particular reason I cannot fathom out.I am used to them now but sometimes on close quarter manoevering one poair can be enough.

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[hlb]

Cant think of any good reason for having them. Like you say, in marinas it can be about split second timing and looking for the gear stick just adds to the difficulty. Maybe the previous owner was an old timer and thought single levers would go wrong. They do. But no more often than anything else.

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Haydn

 

[byron]

<font color=blue>It's largely just a question of preference. There are arguements for the type you have over dual function in-so-far that if you have a cable malfunction you still have a degree of useability and instant awareness. Furthermore at low speed manouvering I belive your controls give a greater degree of control, that is of course only my opinion. That isn't a very good explanation but if you think about it you will see what I mean.

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[stefan_r]

I have 2 and have got used to them but still think that 1 would be better.

I think mine are like that because of the very separate geabox and engine arrangements I have and because it gives the builder flexibility to put any engine/gearbox combination in without worrying about whether the controls need to be changed.

I have thought about changing them to single, electronic, controls but have been told they are unreliable.....

<hr width=100% size=1>mailto: stefan@athito.com

 

[Divemaster1]

Various reasons and preferences and not thinking about reliability with cables etc...

1) With the setup with seperate gear and throttle controls, you would automatically use less "fistfull" of throttle, and as such you would probably end up with more slow and thus controlled manouvers. People may disagree with me here, but it may result in saving on expensive damage gearboxes etc., through going from forwards to rev in reverse..

2) With single setup you have all in one lever, which is, to some seen as a benefit, and would save space for the boat builder.

I think that you will find that with larger boats, with the larger engines (500 hp and up), a lot of the boats does have seperate controls for gear and throttle. (British manufacturers seems to be excluded from this, but lot's of the other European and US manufactured boats have this setup...)

It is all an individual preference thing, and there will be arguments for both camps. Personally, I have no preference and would be happy to have eighter, including hydraulic and or EDC controls, although the latter i have found too light in choppy conditions on smaller vessels..



<hr width=100% size=1>Alf

 

[mainshiptom]

I have Two and yes I did get used to it !

Also it looks more complex for begginers and puts them off ! good , It is not a sports car..



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[jfm]

Divemaster, on the contrary, with a 2 lever set up you can more easily damage the gearbox because you can change gears at high throttle settings. With a single lever box, the gearchange happens at idle rpm. I much prefer single lever

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[Guest]

The Double control system I have does not work off of a dual station unit and therefore they tend to be rather stiff i.e. pulling 2 lots of cables all of the time.Flybridge pair and lower helm pair together rather cumbersome.

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[Divemaster1]

Sorry,

I assumed some sort of intelligent operator who would not attempt this, and the ones (4 different ones) I've had the pleasure of operating had an arrangement where the gearshift were locked from shifting FW - REV above x RPM... (FW - N and REV to N = OK). Therefore being naive, I assumed this was std.

<hr width=100% size=1>Alf

 

[milltech]

Personally speaking I have found that 90% of the time separate controls for both are an advantage, particularly with revs just slightly above idle. It's convenient to flip power in and out just using the gears and still keeping everything nicely balanced.

However when emegency situations arise having four controls can quickly lead to a nightmare.

Years ago I had a Moonraker and the flybridge controls did not move in conjuction with the wheelhouse ones. This was not a problem to me, but I did hear it said that on one Moonraker a child had moved a lever at one station resulting in the skipper being unable to disengage gear at the other and so hitting the quay in Lymington, don't know if it was true though. (These were single lever contols working throttle and gears).

<hr width=100% size=1>John
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[byron]

<font color=blue>I remember last year a boat out of Ramsgate did thousands of pounds worth of damage to itself at St Kats when a kid below pushed a throttle forwards whilst the owner was driving from the flybridge.

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[hlb]

If I sound a bit funny. Sorry. I've just been to the dentist!!

I've had the problem of accidently leaving the downstairs helm in gear. Then starting the boat upstairs. Where upon it sets off at high speed.

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Haydn

 

[tcm]

the "microtouch"electronic ones one are something of a liabilty, with a rope thrown from the quay sending a boat careering off at speed.

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[Guest]

Talking of St. Katts. I hate that lock. First of all your bouncing around outside going round in circles waiting to go in.Then last year having entered the lock and the lock master having taken my aft line from my son without my knowlegge because of the strong winds tied the aft line so taut I had no slack to manouvre the bow alongside and ended up very embarrasingly horizontal across the lock.Having quickly cut the line free I was able to re align the vessell where I wanted it.The dockmaster of couse blamed me (Poor Ron bless him) Bridge going up & down all day but I still do not like tieing aft first regardless.

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[ArthurWood]

I assure you it's not std - speaking from experience! However, once I had got used to the 4-lever arrangement, v. common in US, it's great for close qtr manoeuvring.

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