1 day ago
Sunday 18 March 2012
Heavy steering - can anyone help?
We have recently looked at a boat. We liked it, but it has steering which is much heavier than we are used to with Shadow. Can anything be done about this? Would it be possible to modify the rudder such that more of it extends forward of the pivot point? Is there anything else which might be affecting the feel of the steering? As far as I can tell, the tiller moves freely enough when the boat is at rest. The tiller arm is a little on the short side, perhaps, but if it were much longer it wouldn't be easy to stand in the hatch to steer. How much difference could an extra three inches, say, on the tiller arm make?
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10 comments:
I don't know if this might help....
http://www.canalboat.co.uk/on-the-water/ask-the-experts/ask-a-question-forum/Posts/183
It could be all kinds of things. It would be worth checking what type of bearing it has, and whether that is the problem. The balancing of the rudder is a very fine art -- when we had Briar Rose surveyed, the report said there was too much rudder forward of the rudder post, making the steering a bit heavy (and it doesn't self centre, either). In lots of cases, though, you just get used to it!
Dave, thanks, that's very useful.
Adam, I think that the more rudder there is forward of the rudder post the lighter the steering should be, not heavier. On the boat we tried, you could let go of the tiller for a few seconds and course would be maintained.
Well I suppose it depends what you mean by heavy. Too little forward of the rudder post, and you might well have trouble turning. But if your rudder is over-balanced (too much of the rudder forward of the rudder post) the first part of the turn may well feel easy. But then it may be very difficult to stop it turning beyond where you want -- and might be a devil of a job to get it back to centre again. Both types of wrongly balanced rudder feel like a struggle -- but getting the rudder just right isn't easy.
Extending the tiller arm would certainly help, even a few inches would probably make a difference.
Adam, sorry, I didn't really explain what I meant by "heavy". When under way, it requires more effort to push or pull the tiller than I have been used to on other boats. There certainly isn't a point beyond which it suddenly "snaps" and "runs away".
If we make an offer on the boat, I'll get it checked at the survey.
Sarah, yes, that's what I hoped would be the case. Perhaps a longer wooden handle would do it.
Halfie, before I start, be aware that I don’t have an instant answer for you! I was an owner on Sojourn for 19 years until moving over to Sundowner (6 years younger than Sojourn) last year. I was shocked at how much heavier the steering is on Sundowner and raised the issue last October with other owners, one of whom is Andrew Cooley - who I think you know as Shadow is at Tattenhall and I believe managed by BCBM? Andrew was also an ex Sojourn owner so also knows first hand the difference in steering between the 2 boats. Andrew was going to raise the subject with more technically minded folk but because I’ve been rather busy and not cruising, I’m afraid that until you brought the subject up I’d forgotten all about it! So this is just to say that a) I have now emailed Andrew to see if there is any new info that might throw light on these steering differences and b) as you know him, it might well be worth you having a chat about it directly with him, I’m sure he’d be happy to help if he can.
Flingel, yes, I do know Andrew. (Shadow has now moved to Wigram's Turn but is still managed by BCBM). Good idea - I'll e-mail him too.
Halfie, I've just had a reply from Andrew to say that he's passed this on to Pete Underwood who is now the BCBM area manager covering Aston (where Sundowner now is). I'll let you know of any further feedback.
Thanks flingel.
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