Steering

[Carter Brey]

The best thing about wheel steering is that I can imitate my beloved Uncle Don.

Uncle Don was a Buick salesman in a suburb of Pittsburgh, and he always had a shiny new example of his product in his driveway.Top of the line, too. Two-tone paint jobs and whitewall tires.

Don would wheel his 88 out to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, gun her up to about 70 miles per hour (which, in those pre-emission control standards days, was barely above idle), roll down his window and light up a Cohiba Especial (not only was gas cheap, but Batista was still in the saddle). Then he'd rest his left forearm on the door, elbow to the breeze, hand relaxed in an attitude of well-fed male contentment, and steer with his other hand, cigar held aloft between first and second fingers. The wind would ruffle his hair as he explained how President Eisenhower was planning a nationwide network of such high-speed roads. Good old Uncle Don, the avatar of postwar America.

Except for the part about Eisenhower, and the cigar, that's my preferred attitude on an easy reach.

Try that with a tiller.

[Paul Grecay]

I almost retrofitted my 28 with a wheel...but I decided not to do it. My vote goes to tiller.... I feel much closer contact with the forces on the rudder, no worries about the moving parts of a wheel, and despite the room it takes up, the fact that it can be cocked up at anchor makes up for it. The aries wind vane handles it beautifully and I can always tell what my rudder is doing just by looking at the tiller. My car has wheel steering...that's more than enough wheel steering for me.

[Neil Gordon]

Except for the part about Eisenhower, and the cigar, that's my preferred attitude on an easy reach.

Try that with a tiller.

Nice memory. Thanks for sharing.

But seriously, except for Eisenhower and the cigar? How about also except for the 70 miles per hour? (Are you suggesting that a wheel makes you go faster?)

>>Try that with a tiller<<

How about leaning back, both arms spread and resting on the coamings, a gentle breeze on a starboard reach, right leg in whatever relaxed position you prefer, left leg casually draped over the tiller in order to make periodic minor course adjustments. (Cigar optional but if you smoke one, please consider the rest of the crew and keep to the leeward side.)

[Steve Laume]

I never had much experience with wheel steering a sailboat until my current boat. As others have said the pedestal makes a great foundation for "stuff". What I like the most is that I can trust people who have never been on a boat before to steer. They seem to be able to figure it out, as it is much like their cars. That doesn't mean we go straight but at least we are generally going in the right direction. That is if they don't try to use the compass. This gives me the opportunity to play with the lines and generally roam around the boat, which is more fun than steering all the time. I have found I can steer with my feet or a short length of line tied to the wheel under the right conditions. I still get this overwhelming desire to say things like yo ho and avast when standing at the wheel, Steve.

[Dick Barthel]

Except for the part about Eisenhower, and the cigar, that's my preferred attitude on an easy reach.

Try that with a tiller.

Carter,

If memory serves I remember a picture that you posted some time back where you were steering with your big toe. The only thing missing from total contentment was the cigar. I aim to duplicate that technique with my tiller boat this summer.

Perhaps you could post that pic again as one of the better pros for a tiller.

Dick

[Neil Gordon]

If memory serves I remember a picture that you posted some time back where you were steering with your big toe.

If you have a tiller and the sails are properly trimmed, you can easily steer with just your little toe.

[Dick Barthel]

If memory serves I remember a picture that you posted some time back where you were steering with your big toe.

If you have a tiller and the sails are properly trimmed, you can easily steer with just your little toe.

Neil,

Sorry for causing confusion....the picture was of Carter sailing his CD25 and his big toe was indeed hooked securely around the tiller.

Dick

[Carter Brey]

If memory serves I remember a picture that you posted some time back where you were steering with your big toe.

If you have a tiller and the sails are properly trimmed, you can easily steer with just your little toe.

Neil,

Sorry for causing confusion....the picture was of Carter sailing his CD25 and his big toe was indeed hooked securely around the tiller.

Dick

On the contrary. I have no contact with the tiller at all in the photo. The tiller is held by a rolling hitch led to the windward coaming cleat:

[img]http://pws.prserv.net/cbrey/hempstead0013.jpeg[/img]

My feet are simply propped up on the opposite seat, well forward of the tiller. Now that's sail trim!

[Dick Barthel]

It's still a great picture - the epitomy of cruising. All I can say is Carter's toe's are prominently displayed and I'm getting old and my memory is failing me.

Dick

[MarkN]

Sorry for the delayed response (somehow work seems to get in my way). Thanks to all for your insight - I somehow missed the earlier thread in my search on the subject. As I presumed the preference of one over the other is a bit personal though I am always a believer in the KISS principle. My "window shopping" on the internet led me to a number of CD28's almost all with tiller - but one or two with wheel (which I assume was done by a PO - wheel wasn't an option was it?), thus I was somewhat intrigued by the idea of having a wheel. For those of you that have a wheel - do you have any maintenance issues - do you have an annual/seasonal checklist?

[Derek Matheson]

Mark:
We have a CD28 with a wheel, and I have toyed with the idea of removing it, for a number of reasons. Firstly, it's one more thing to maintain and worry about. Edson publishes a maintenance schedule, but there are a lot of moving parts, which will all require attention at some time. Secondly, my experience with the wheel and the mainsheet attached to the end of the boom has not been good. On several occasions when jibing, the mainsheet has caught me on the neck as I didn't duck behind the wheel fast enough. There's only about 6 inches clearance.
If we keep the wheel, I will move the traveller to the cabintop like on the CD30. On the other hand, guests learn to 'helm' in about 5 seconds, so that I can go forward to raise/lower sails, etc. My kids love the wheel, as they can stand up and be the 'captain' while steering.
Derek M.

[Derek Matheson]

Oh boy, am I glad we had the spare tiller on board the CD28 yesterday afternoon. We were on Middle River north of Maryland heading down river to the Chesapeake for a quiet afternoon sailing. We had main and working jib up. A guest was at the wheel, when the wind went from 5 knots to 30 knots in the space of about a minute as a "unforecast thunderstorm" popped up. We had tree leaves flying across the water. The guest wrenched the wheel over, and as the boat was slow to respond, wrenched harder until the wheel spun free, probably tearing a cable loose.

With no rudder action and about 1/4 mile from running into the marinas dotting the north shore, I tried steering with sails alone, as there was no other immediate option. Guess what - a CD28 can be sailed just fine without a rudder in 30 knots. We even tacked by backwinding the jib, so we could get away from the shore. Mainsheet in = head upwind. Mainsheet out = head downwind. We had dropped the jib by this stage. With the guest no longer threatening to have a heart attack, I gave him the mainsheet to control while I went and found the tiller, bolt and a couple of wrenches.

We installed the tiller (first time for me), and turned and ran downwind under main alone at hullspeed or more for about 15 minutes until it started to rain sideways. Then we turned around and putted home, even managing to dock safely in 20 knots. The marina restuarant had complimentary Coronas from 5pm to 7pm, so that helped make up for the shortened trip somewhat.

Thank you Mr Alberg for keeping us safe. What a stable, predictable boat. Even with 30 knots on the beam we were not knocked down and did not feel threatened in any way. I couldn't imagine doing this in a Catalina 27 or J24.

And yes, wheels are a point of failure on a boat, and I will be fixing something again instead of sailing this weekend, and leaning more toward taking the wheel out.

Lessons learned:
1. Keep the wheel system maintained.
2. Train the crew. Even though the guest was a sailor, he had no experience with a wheel. He said he didn't know where the rudder was pointing.
3. Practice installing and sailing with the tiller.
4. Practice steering with sails only, this gave us time to find and install the tiller.
5. Stay calm and keep thinking. This keeps a situation from becoming an "emergency".

[Judith]

We, too, are new boat-owners and new to sailing (*I* am anyway).

Thanks very much for posting your, ahhh, adventure. "A CD28 can be sailed just fine without a rudder in 30 knots" is immensely reassuring! Not that I'll go out of my way to try it

I'm glad everything worked out alright, though, and do appreciate you relating the experience.

Cheers,
Judith

[Rebinva]

the deal on a CD 28. Sounds like we made a good choice!!!!!!!!!

[henry hey]

bottomscraper wrote:
Hmmm if it's so great why don't cars still have them?

Well, I would assume that it might have something to do with the fact that cars routinely travel at speeds between 30 and 70 miles per hour, and are require to negotiate very specific tracks.

Perhaps if our sailboats were doing anywhere near that speed and we had to navigate some canals with tight turns at those speeds this might be a different discussion.

conversely,

I do believe that the tiller feedback point is quite valid. There is no better way to know that your boat is balanced/unbalanced than having a tiller try to pull your hand from your wrist.


Now as to the tiller interface being outdated (as the photo in the tiller/car post might imply). . . what sort of input device is used for this machine?




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