Cant steer!

[Jelly]

I tried to steer my shaft driven Corniche on one engine at the weekend and it just went round in circles. I've never owned a twin engined boat before, but this isnt normal is it? Why have two engines when if one dies the other is only good for keeping the domestic battery charged?

Thanks,
Mike.

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[martynwhiteley]

This is where outdrives strike back over shatfs!

Under those circumstances, it would be much easier to steer with just one outdrive out of two.

On a twin shaft boat, you will only be able to steer to the same side as the running engine, once you are up to a reasonable speed, which makes close quarters work almost impossible, esp in a breeze.

If you've tried at speed and still failed, then there must be a problem with your rudders.

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[powerskipper]

You have to use the wheel to correct the off set of one engine, she will behave a bit like a yacht and will like turning one way better. It is easy enough on one engine on a shaft, just slow,

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Julie

 

[Jelly]

I had the steering wheel at full lock against the turn with little or no effect. I was only trying to pick up a mooring buoy, so was only doing a couple of knots at best. I'll have to try it at speed, but I was fairly shocked at how useless it was.

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[powerskipper]

was there any tide running?
You sometimes have to give a kick/spurt of power to get them to go where you want. did you have the ignitions turn on the other engine as depending on which engine runs the electrics you may have had no power to the rudder controls.

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Julie<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by powerskipper on 25/08/2004 09:36 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[martynwhiteley]

Julie,

Far from me to challenge your skills and experience at power boating, but do you expect any steerage at 2 knts, tide or no tide? (or even 1 or 2 engines for that matter!)

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[powerskipper]

see above./forums/images/icons/smile.gif

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Julie

 

[martynwhiteley]

Woman's prerogative I suppose /forums/images/icons/wink.gif !!

Now you'll just make me look silly when all the shaft driven big boys come on line this evening, and this thread tops a 100 posts /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif.



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[powerskipper]

was altering it as you posted and had not seen your post then. and yes there is some steerage at low speeds,
Have a play= try putting your boat in gear for a min, get it moving and take it out of gear, then try turning the wheel , works on shafts and out drives, see what happens???

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Julie

 

[boatone]

Which lock? Which prop working? Is it possible lot less than 2 knots which is quite fast trying to pick up a buoy? Have you ever experimented with either/or/both props to determine paddle wheel effect?
Sorry for all these silly questions but suspect not enough info for helpful replies.



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[Jelly]

I was using short burst of power in forward and reverse to try and get water flowing past one of the rudders (in the same way you would manouvre a single engine boat). In reverse it suffered huge amounts of prop walk (understandable) but going forward it just gently turned regardless of the power applied.

I think what worried me most was that I was trying to turn it into the flow of the tide, but couldn't get it past half way. I have swung 40ft single engine Broads boats round almost on their axis by using bursts of F/R power, but this was close to out of control in relatively gentle tide. I was expecting the offset prop to make things harder, but not impossible...

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[hlb]

M Farter hardly steers at all on one engine. I understand your problem. Trying to turn in the direction of the running engine requires a turning circle of about a mile. This was made conciderably worse when the auto pilot was fitted and the steering reduced to stop the AP rams coming out the end. Having said that, I've gone miles on one engine. The trick is to drop a trimtab on the side thats running, giving an extra rudder effect. Trouble is with doing this is. When you take the power off, the boat just slews round uncontrolably. If you have no auto P can you move the stops back on the rudder???

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Haydn

 

[boatless]

Full lock may be overdoing it, depending on how many degrees full lock is. This stalls the flow over the blade. Once stalled there is virtually no lift produced. It's a bit of a juggle, because you really want the blade at no more then 5 degrees to the open water (ie no significant prop wash) flow, but when you're using prop wash to induce flow, 10 degrees will work. So, at low speed, try less helm angle.

This is all relative, depending on blade foil section, position relative to prop etc...

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[Jelly]

Thanks all. I'm glad I got the engine running again, dont know how I would have got it into the marina and berthed otherwise. Now I no why a small twin engine boat should have a bow thruster!

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[hlb]

Na.Just get the dinghy down and use it as a tug.../forums/images/icons/smile.gif

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Haydn

 

[adarcy]

Re: BTs rule KO!

haydn

Maybe just maybe it is better to have 2 engines out 3 than 1 out of 2 (snigger)

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[tcm]

lesson in steering

there's no prob in steering with just the one engine on sgafts. You need to be able to do it for rya YM exam anyway.

At moderate speeds, you can use the autopilot and it will compensate for lack of other engine. If the busted engine can tickover at least, run it like that to keep oil movbing around anygearbox cooler if you have to cover distance.

Close quarters, turn the wheel all the way towards the working engine. Easy to go in the direction of the busted engine of course, but to turn it around in the direction of the working engine, use reverse and give it some beans - thsui will haul the bow around, then go forwards with wheels all the way over towards the working engine - don't worry that the initial move is not in the dircetion you want- once the inital bob to the wrong direction, the rudder takes over and steers you tother way, although going in reverse is probly more controlled.

If coming alongside, keep the working engine on the outside.


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[ArthurWood]

You're not alone with this experience; I lost a prop a week after I bought my first twin-engined shaft boat and could not get it to stop going around in circles at idle speed. Once I got up speed I could steer it with a lot of rudder correction. However, I left it to the marina to put in the mooring. Since then, I've watched as marina staff dock, stern-to on one engine, but never tried it myself. Coming alongside is relatively easy, but backing into a slip, I'm not so sure.

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[Bandit]

I have a fairline 36 sedan on shafts.

I picked up a tarpaulin around port shaft so I motored on starb shaft for last 30 miles.

I was going due south at 9 knots, F3 wind and small sea was from SW.

I could steer ahead and only maybe 5 deg to starb but any angle to port. I wonder if it had been Force 4 to 5 from sw if I could have steered at all ahead or to starb.

This might have been affected by the drag of the tarpaulin, I suggest that everyone tries single engine steering with their own boat in not perfect conditions on different directions viz a viz the sea and wind direction before they have a problem.

I carry a large drogue and rumour has it you can deploy it to compensate for wind and weather but I have not tried it.

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