Tiller or wheel for bluewater?

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river251

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Hello, been reading lots, but my first post.

The Contessa 32, Kevin Boothby's Southern Cross ("how to sail oceans" on youtube), have tillers, and are known to be good ocean sailers from what I've read (I'm a future sailor).

I read varying opinions but still really have no idea if a tiller is a good choice for crossing oceans. Any enlightenment about this matter would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

Jim
 
Wheel or tiller is about personal preference and size of the boat. There’s an overlap but bigger boats tend to have wheels. Smaller ones have tillers.
Boats with wheels invariably have an emergency tiller and when you use it, you realise why they have a wheel.
There’s no rule of thumb for which is better for ocean sailing, but I expect people will now outline their personal preferences.

Whether a boat is a ‘good ocean sailor’ is also a little bit subjective, but it’s certainly true that some boats are definitely NOT suitable and some boats are more comfortable in a seaway than others.

And this is before I ask ‘what sort of ocean sailing?’ High latitude sailing demands a different boat to sailing round the world in the tropics...
 
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What do you have at the moment? I think it's down to preference. For long distance sailing the. Autopilot solution is key and there are solutions for both.
Modern boats over 30 foot tend to come with wheel steering
 
Do you want to stand up or sit down for 3,000 miles?

A wind vane is the right answer.

Which boat, what rudder? There might be a good argument for keeping things simple if your budget isn't high, ie tiller and transom mounted.
 
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It depends on the boat you want, or have . I prefer a tiller despite having a heavy old 50 footer . However, if I went for something newer, I'd quite fancy a centre cockpit, so then it'd have to be a wheel.
 
Firstly, I have only ever crossed oceans in airliners so my opinion is just speculation, but...

An appropriately balanced rudder attached to a tiller has very few things to go wrong - definitely advantageous when crossing oceans. Transom mounted is even safer. The cluttered cockpit would annoy until arrival, when the tiller could be shipped for a nice clear cockpit. I guess the tiller could be shipped or replaced with a very short one when under autopilot/vane. My first boat had a lifting high aspect ratio spade rudder in something like a centreboard case which I had to raise at sea several times to clear pot lines etc.

Boat two had a tiller, a small, well balanced, low aspect ratio rudder and no skeg. Little feel, but not tiring either. I did gather a few objects over the years, but nothing that couldn't wait for for the tide to go out.

My boat has mechanical wheel steering because the rudder is 100% unbalanced and there are two steering positions. There is next to no 'feel' through the wheel and loads of chain and wire all over the bilges. Fixing a fault could be great fun during an ocean passage. The less cluttered cockpit while sailing is good but the wheel is in the way in port. The skeg supported rudder has yet to collect any debris.
 
For long distance 'blue water' sailing I would install windvane self steering, in which case it is generally simpler to fit to a tiller rather than wheel, but can be fitted to either.
Windvane self steering is great, no power consumption, remarkably good at keeping on course and in most cases easily repaired if something does go wrong.
We travelled miles using a Navik (unfortunately no longer made and getting a bit like dragons teeth to find) it was reliable, simple to operate and one of the best investments I ever made on my last boat.
I really regret that I sold it with the boat.
 
It really doesn't matter. Certainly matters much less than whether the keel is encapsulated vs bolt on, or whether it has a spade or skeg hung rudder, or whether the mast is keel or deck stepped. And those things don't really matter either.

What does matter is that everything is sturdy and reliable, and that the skipper knows the boat and its limitations, and will not push his or her luck.
 
Wheel steering would be my preference but they can come with more maintenance issues and there are many different types of steering systems some of which I would personally avoid.

When I sailed across the Atlantic in a 48 foot centre cockpit boat, the steering system was cable via pulleys onto the quadrant. The steering almost disabled itself as the wires stretched and almost fell off the quadrant. We sorted it just in time.

I prefer a wheel system where the linkage to the rudder is short (such as an aft cockpit boat) and prefer a solid rod system to wire or hydraulic.
 
E39mad said:
Wheel steering would be my preference but they can come with more maintenance issues and there are many different types of steering systems some of which I would personally avoid.

When I sailed across the Atlantic in a 48 foot centre cockpit boat, the steering system was cable via pulleys onto the quadrant. The steering almost disabled itself as the wires stretched and almost fell off the quadrant. We sorted it just in time.

I prefer a wheel system where the linkage to the rudder is short (such as an aft cockpit boat) and prefer a solid rod system to wire or hydraulic.
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We have a whitlock shaft drive system on our centre cockpit boat. Robust and simple. Combined with a powerful below decks autopilot and a Windpilot self steering system it ticks all the boxes for us.
 
I find it more involving and therefore more enjoyable to sail a boat with a tiller when it's me who's doing the steering. For crossing oceans or longer trips electric tiller pilot options tend to be less expensive (and arguably more reliable if you go for something above a bog standard tiller pilot , Pelagic e.g.) than electric wheel steering options. Windvane steering options are expensive for both tiller and wheel steered boats but fantastic to have, they occasionally come up second hand on ebay. Here's a video of my old Hasler SP3 windvane steering on a 1969 Bowman 26...
 
Depend on how much complexity you want to put up with and are both willing and able to repair.

"Cruising is repairing your boat in exotic locations"

Electric autopilots are great, while they work. Unless you are an electech they are impossible to repair. My view is nice to have but not to be relied on.

After sailing the length of the UK a couple of times with two people and hand steering I fitted a tiller pilot, that soon failed, then my first windvane steering system. That was in the 70's and I have fitted windvane steering to all my subsequent boats. A properly set up windvane system, which requires knowing how to balance your sails, can be used on long or short passages as well as for afternoon sailing.
Based on my experience of owning a number of sailing boats (wheel and tiller) over almost 50 years I would choose tiller steering and a servo pendulum windvane system. Back it up with a simple tillerpilot (or two) for use when motoring.

The nice thing about owning a sailing boat is that we are each free to set up our boats as we wish - other people will disagree with me.
 
Mol
srm said:
Depend on how much complexity you want to put up with and are both willing and able to repair.

"Cruising is repairing your boat in exotic locations"

Electric autopilots are great, while they work. Unless you are an electech they are impossible to repair. My view is nice to have but not to be relied on.
....
The nice thing about owning a sailing boat is that we are each free to set up our boats as we wish - other people will disagree with me.
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I agree with the second sentiment but have found the autopilot pretty reliable from Greece to the Canaries over a meandering 10 years except once when the nut connecting the ram to the quadrant sheared, and when the twenty year old ram developed a couple of dead spots near the centreline position so only worked 99 percent of the time. I have bought a new ram but kept the old one as a backup. The only component I couldn’t fix or replace is the course computer which is in a high dry cupboard.
 
RupertW said:
It’s all about the autopilot - the real question is whether you prefer wheel or tiller for tight harbour manoeuvres.
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Though not quite as relevant for a bluewater boat which will tend to live on the hook apart from occasional fuel dock trips.
Unless bluewater means very rich living in a med marina ;)
 
GHA said:
Though not quite as relevant for a bluewater boat which will tend to live on the hook apart from occasional fuel dock trips.
Unless bluewater means very rich living in a med marina ;)
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Not at all - we live almost always on the hook but when we do go into tight harbour wall spaces that’s the only time the convenience or effectiveness of the steering actually matters.
 
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