Tiller to Wheel conversion?

[Wardy]

On a Contessa 33 (for sake of argument), is it possible to convert from a tiller to wheel and binnacle steering?
How much would this conversion possibly cost?
Is it worth it?
Any opinions negative or positive as to which is better would be gratefully recieved.

I have limited sailing experience with a wheel helm and, for my own future buy, wonder at the pro's and con's of tillers.

Thanks


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[bruce]

off hand, 3000/5000 for parts and perhaps labor. would recomend trying both before deciding, regardless of what you hear here. edson.com, or just edson steering should pull up a site with all your equipment answers.

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[Jcorstorphine]

Having had a tiller steered yacht followed by a wheel steered vessel, I would always go for the wheel. Basic benefit is fixed amount of real estate required in the cockpit for the person steering the boat. From my tiller steered yacht days, I recall everyone have to move about as the helmsman (should that be tillerman) staggered from one side to another. With the steering wheel everyone just stayed where they were and the shout of lee ho simply meant, keep your head down.

However if you are a racing man then I would keep to a tiller as you get a much better feel of the boat.


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[Jcorstorphine]

There was an article in PBO some years ago which related to fitting wheel steering in a what I believe was a Westerly Centaur. I am sure the costs was in the order of £1250 ish.

Perhaps if you contact Kim he may be able to tell you which edition. I would have a look myself but as I have something like 400 PBOs which are not in the best of chronological, this would be a bit of a task.


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[andy_wilson]

On a yacht that size a tiller is better. Along with all the rest of the junk stored aft, a wheel steering system will just hang another 50 - 100 kg right where you don't need it.

When not designed in, the tiller tube can be severly compromised in the conversion, and will require some fairly heavy duty design and conversion work to provide a lever arm for the steering, and still provide a pick-up for emergency tiller.

Beyond that, it depends whether - like on my yacht for instance - you would need a new fuel tank to provide clearance for the binnacle mounting and steering mechanism.

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[snowleopard]

the choice of wheel or tiller comes up fairly regularly here. a few of the arguments are:

wheel is more 'natural' for non-sailing crew
tiller responds quicker
tiller takes up cockpit space
big wheels are difficult to get past
wheels have more to go wrong.

the question of wheel size is contentious. racing boats go for big wheels so you can sit well out to either side to see the sails. other than that the wheel size seems to be a macho thing. on a cruiser you don't need anything bigger than 2 ft diameter unless the boat is really hard-mouthed. a small wheel means you don't have to climb out of the cockpit to get to the steering position.

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[fireball]

The tiller only takes up space when in use and no more than a reasonably placed wheel. The huge advantage of a tiller is that they can usually be lifted out the way and strapped to the backstay when berthed. Tacking can be more of a problem as the helm changes sides, but (s)he doesn't have to move at the time of tacking.

If you use autohelm a lot then wheel steering could be beneficial as the unit is (generally) fixed to the wheel and takes up no more space - our ST1000 has to be removed each time and is (IMO) the one huge disadvantage of tiller steering (yes I know you can mount them on the rudder post - but I can't get there to fit or operate it!)

I've used both wheel and tiller steering and my preference is to tiller - it is much easier to determine where the rudder is - being a direct lever, and gives a better feel for the boat.
That said - the larger the boat, the larger the forces so wheels become a requirement.

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[dulcibella]

Much depends on the boat design and sailing characteristics. In a long keeler with a rudder hung from the transom and keel, the cockpit is generally long but narrow and everything is in favour of a tiller. In addition such boats are easy to trim for a neutral helm so can be tiller-steered without having to resist significant weather helm. The further the design of a boat departs from this traditional pattern, the stronger the arguments for a wheel become.

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[Wardy]

Thanks for the replies.
Given what has been said, i think that whatever I buy , I will leave the steering alone and not consider replacing a tiller with a wheel.
From a novices aspect; tiller steering looks amateurish in comparison to the image of a large ocean going racer's wheel (or two wheels on certain racers). This assumption led me to believe that a wheel was technically better in some way and that i might want to consider the change should my boat not have one.

We live and learn and there's plenty left to learn for me.

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[charles_reed]

Fashion

has a lot to answer for - wheels are IN.

They have far more disadvantages compared to advantages in boats of up to 40' LWL.

In most cases in my experience, with expert long-distance yachties, the conversion has been from wheel to tiller rather than the other way around.

Their only possible advantage (apart from the subjective of being "racy") is that they might take up slightly less cockpit space under way than does a tiller.

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[samuel]

Re: Fashion

An interesting question. Are there any Hanse owners out there reading this?. I think I ruined my Hanse 311 by not paying the extra £ 2500-00 for a wheel. trouble is you can go on spending when you by a new boat & I had to stop somewhere. The tiller on a Hanse is so heavy that my wife cannot steer the boat in any amount of wind for more than half an hour. ( For the benefit of non Hanse owners a Hanse has a self tacking jib & a proportionately big main Hence excessive inbalance)
Would a wheel get the missus up on deck & not down below knitting ???
I spoke to a Hanse owner who says he has heard the designer has come up with a replacement rudder for owners who are unhappy with the tiller. It has a much greater amount of blade infront of the centre of effort. Has anyone tried this.? It could be a lot cheaper to change the rudder than buy a wheel conversion. Would it work as a cheaper alternative for other boats?

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[fireball]

Re: Fashion

A wheel conversion won't sort out your weather helm ... it does look like they got the balance wrong somewhere .. too small a jib or too large a main (reef earlier?) or incorrect placement/size of the keel/rudder ... treat the cause, not the symptoms!

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[riojasailer]

Re: Fashion

My Hanse 301 certainly doesn't have a heavy tiller problem - in fact it's the best balanced boat I've ever sailed with the self tacker and unreefed main - so it must be a 311 problem and not a Hanse problem generally.

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[samuel]

Re: Fashion

Aparently the 301 is one of the better boats of its size. The 311 is a real pig & this has been confirmed in test reports.
Anyone have a bigger Hanse?? Any comments?
Regarding sorting out the balance you cannot do a lot. One does not reef in a light wind & a self tacking jib has a limit on the max size. I have never had to reef the jib in weather up to F8+ so it is quite small.
The 311 has an optional Genoa but as I sail single handed a lot ( Missus just sits below reading & flies home when she gets fed up. This year it was from Pornic so I had 600 miles return journey on my own!!) I tend not to use it.
Surely a wheel is geered to give better leverage-- Am I correct in this assumption?
or is it the same 1 to 1 that one gets with a tiller??

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