Auto helm???

[clinker lifeboat]

I have a 30ft gaff cutter clinker built boat with a traditional wooden ships wheel about 2ft dia using a teleflex cable to a bracket on the side of the rudder. (she's a proper double ender with the rudder hung off the stearn.) Does anyone know of an autohelm that can be fitted to this type of system as I cannot fit the wheel unit to my wheel.

Thanks everyone who replied to my last thread, you guys are making old wooden boat ownership an awful lot easier to justify to the missus!!!

 

[DownWest]

Might be a bit pricey, but a hydraulic one on the rudder 'tiller'/ bracket would do it.
Or perhaps a seperate arm with a push/pull rod going inside to an actuator. Keep the actuator dry.
A

Or maybe one of the electric tiller units with a seperate actuator, prob quite a bit cheaper.

 

[srm]

How about a tiller pilot acting directly on the rudder bracket (side tiller)?, provided that the wheel can be turned through your linkage by the rudder. However, it may help to disconnect the wheel steering linkage at the rudder to reduce the loads if its to be used on longish passage.
I would be inclined to go for the biggest tiller pilot as it sounds as if your rudder may develop high loads. Also, the connection point for the tiller pilot must be the same distance from the pintles as they recommend for mounting on a tiller, to give the same leverage and response time.
Under sail do not expect any 'autohelm' to win the fight with a badly balanced sailing rig though, you will have to set the boat up so it is nicely balanced and almost sailing itself -just like using a wind vane self steering gear. My preference is to use an 'autohelm' for motoring and light wind sailing and a wind vane self steering gear for sailing in fresher conditions, but that is probably over the top for you.

 

[Adamastor]

Get hold of Octopus- I can't remember whether they're Yankee or Canuck, but they have a dedicated motor that works the helm unit of the Teleflex-type helms from the back end- it fits behind the dashboard.

 

[Peterduck]

Years a go I saw an ingenious system devised by an American yacht designer whose name escapes me for the moment. I'll try to describe it. A horizontal rod in line with the boat's centreline passes through the upper part of the sternpost. It engages into a slot in the rudder head. Where it leaves the sternpost, it is bent downward at an angle of 40 degrees. At its inboard end it is geared to the steering wheel shaft, which is parallel to it and just above it. As the rudder shaft rotates, the bent part moves the rudder from side to side. Given the forces which can apply to such a shaft, it needs to be very strong, probably about 1" diameter. The gearing ratio is up to you, but I would imagine that around 3 or 4 to 1 might be appropriate. A lever can be clamped and keyed to this shaft, and a normal push-pull Autohelm attached to the lever, all of this being below the aft deck. The longer the lever, the easier it would be for the autohelm, but the limitation is the length of 'throw' of the autohelm.
Peter.