Steering technique

Getting a feel for the boat is important, wheel or tiller is almost irrelevant! Having said that its great to haul a boat to windward with feet and body draced against the weatherhelm on the tiller .. but that's hardly feel .. its more fight ;-)
 
johnalison said:
Absolutely. The rudder always operates as a brake and the aim is always to use the least possible. This means that the sails must be balanced so that the boat "wants" to sail where the helmsman does. It is relatively easy in most conditions to sail a steady course without moving the helm at all but just varying the pressure.

The aim of the helmsman shouldn't be to "steer" the boat but to re-balance the helm to allow the boat to go in the desired direction. Historically, large sailing ships were always steered by sail adjustment and I believe that in some instances the rudder was only capable of 15 degrees of course change.
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Yes - many traditional boats, especially ships, are steered more by sail trim than the rudder.

However, on a 43 ft Beneteau Oceanis on an ocean passage a few years ago the fastest white-sail broad reaching sped was achieved with an almost continual about 15-20 degrees of rudder, dragging a big quarter wave and loads of turbulence, and occasionally getting onto a surf when you could finally get the rudder central again. Tried everything to avoid the rudder angle, but everything that trimmed that out slowed the boat from averaging 10-11 knots plus quite frequent 13-14 surfs down to 8-9 with very few surfs.

You needed a big spin of the wheel at times to keep it under control and pick up waves. One of the helms just couldn't do this (dial-watcher), and if X was on the helm the average speed dropped significantly. A big ram-drive autopilot was not bad, but not as good as a dinghy sailor on the helm.

Conversely in light airs on a displacement boat a very steady helm is often fastest...
 
I remember the story of a skipper and wife on a wheel steered boat, they removed the wheel for parties in the cockpit; then upped anchor and set off.

The hubby ended up steering out of the anchorage with a pair of mole grips fastened on the steering shaft :)
 
jwilson said:
However, on a 43 ft Beneteau Oceanis on an ocean passage a few years ago the fastest white-sail broad reaching sped was achieved with an almost continual about 15-20 degrees of rudder, dragging a big quarter wave and loads of turbulence, and occasionally getting onto a surf when you could finally get the rudder central again. Tried everything to avoid the rudder angle, but everything that trimmed that out slowed the boat from averaging 10-11 knots plus quite frequent 13-14 surfs down to 8-9 with very few surfs.

You needed a big spin of the wheel at times to keep it under control and pick up waves. One of the helms just couldn't do this (dial-watcher), and if X was on the helm the average speed dropped significantly. A big ram-drive autopilot was not bad, but not as good as a dinghy sailor on the helm.

Conversely in light airs on a displacement boat a very steady helm is often fastest...
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There's something about that spin of the wheel - it maybe lifts the stern a bit and breaks the suction under the back of the hull to let the boat start planing? Perhaps someone more accustomed to planing hulls than I am could elucidate.
 
tidclacy said:
My Wife reckons woman are better than men at Steering. What does the panel think?
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The first time we sailed our Moody33 across the Atlantic, the autopilot failed at Tarifa, outbound. For a great deal of the next 8000 odd miles, we hand steered, some 5500 of that just the 2 of us.

We are both very good at steering :eek:

My wife is far more patient with it than me, but I can have a pee on watch.

3 on 3 off is tiring at first, but you can get used to anything!

First thing we did on our return to Gib was buy a Hydrovane. Then we did the circuit again, just the 3 of us! Brill.
 
lustyd said:
Tillers are for people who like sailing their boat, wheels are for those who like space in the cockpit. I'm torn between the two but ultimately think I'd go with a wheel for the space advantage. It's always nicer entertaining when you don't kneecap your guests with a big stick :)
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All the tillers I've ever seen (almost) have been capable of being raised to leave a clear cockpit. Wheels do have certain advantages but cockpit space is not one of them.
 
jwilson said:
..... You needed a big spin of the wheel at times to keep it under control and pick up waves. ....
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Twister_Ken said:
There's something about that spin of the wheel - it maybe lifts the stern a bit and breaks the suction under the back of the hull to let the boat start planing? ....
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I understand that at speeds its easy for the rudder to loose efficiency due to fast water and turbulence caused by the hull speed and water speed within the wave; airation in the water perhaps also contributed. A long time ago I read that some Whitbread yachts had a gear on the pedestal so the rudder could be moved from side to side with small wheel movements when surfing to make them steer better.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
I understand that at speeds its easy for the rudder to loose efficiency due to fast water and turbulence caused by the hull speed and water speed within the wave; airation in the water perhaps also contributed. A long time ago I read that some Whitbread yachts had a gear on the pedestal so the rudder could be moved from side to side with small wheel movements when surfing to make them steer better.
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Jings, thats cheating! Do that in a laser race and there'll be questions asked ;-)
 
sighmoon said:
We tried a few different ways of steering the boat:

a) standing manfully behind the wheel like you see the pros doing on youtube.
b) sitting on the coaming and steering one handed
c) locking off the steering and letting the boat steer herself
no d) - we haven't got an autopilot.

Disappointingly for all our egos, c) was consistently the fastest, and a) the slowest - I suppose we end up wagging the wheel a little as we keep ourselves upright.

Are we just rubbish at steering or has anyone else tried with similar results? Where does an autopilot figure on the list?
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Back to the original question: unless offwind in strong winds when you're into fast wheelspinning to keep control I almost never stand behind the wheel: either sitting to leeward or up to windward, and either one hand or one foot on wheel. My present modern boat will not steer herself, but I've had a couple that would do this very nicely to windward with tiller lashed, and I used that a lot.
 
jwilson said:
Back to the original question: unless offwind in strong winds when you're into fast wheelspinning to keep control I almost never stand behind the wheel: either sitting to leeward or up to windward, and either one hand or one foot on wheel. My present modern boat will not steer herself, but I've had a couple that would do this very nicely to windward with tiller lashed, and I used that a lot.
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Ditto re standing behind the wheel, can't see the luff clearly from there.

However, why do manufacturers fit a bloody great compass in a binnacle right in front of the wheel and not on the bulkhead. At least when it's in front of you, you can keep one eye on what the electronics are doing and know it's basically accurate. Put the compass somewhere where you're going to be sat almost at right angles to it most of the time and it makes it a nightmare. Yes you can do some maths to work out what it should read when being read from 30 degrees off dead astern but it's one other thing to get wrong and I already have lots of candidates for that.
 
I once sailed in a classic 60s Admiral's Cup boat which had the wheel in its own little cockpit behind the main one with a deck-level bridgedeck in between. Climbing over to change helm was a pretty scary business in a force 8. The steering was geared to 3/4 turn lock to lock so steering off the wind in a blow was b***** hard work.

My present boat has the wheel on the cabin bulkhead under the doghouse and has 4 turns lock to lock. A much more civilised option. Surprisingly, there is quite a bit of feel despite the hydraulic steering. You get feedback whenever you move the wheel opening the non-return valves but you can let go at any time without going off course.
 
tidclacy said:
My Wife reckons woman are better than men at Steering. What does the panel think?
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Without doubt 90% of the time women are better at steering than men. Men are to mechanical women tend to feel it better..

Then on the reverse hand 90% of men are better at tuning rigging and finer points of setting sails...

If my sister or SWMBO are at the stick/ wheel the boat goes faster... I can then tweek the ropes normally we gain 0.5 of knot or more...
 
onesea said:
Without doubt 90% of the time women are better at steering than men. Men are to mechanical women tend to feel it better..

Then on the reverse hand 90% of men are better at tuning rigging and finer points of setting sails...

If my sister or SWMBO are at the stick/ wheel the boat goes faster... I can then tweek the ropes normally we gain 0.5 of knot or more...
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+1. SWMBO much better than me at steering, as I have an attention span of nano seconds. But this means I am much better at trimming sails, and winching needs more muscle than steering - so much the best combination
 
lw395 said:
They are very singleminded, and don't get distracted, but they don't know about windshifts and don't look ahead.
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Hear hear, our autopilot was rubbish compared to a human, any human. But there can be tricky conditions like strong head currents, eddies & overfalls which machines can only react to after the event. Keeping the boat pointing in a given direction is not necessarily safe when ferry gliding round a headland against 6kts of tide & overfalls.
 
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