I have a Catelina 28 that stears hard to port when motering. Is there a corection for this problem?
Stearing Problem
- Thread starter John Bystricky
- Start date
all boats steer harder one way than they do the other way... this is due to the "prop walk".
on a sailboat there is not much you can do because adding a trim tab to the rudder to compensate for it like a powerboat can do, it would cause you to steer hard the other way when under sail....
about the best way to lessen the effects is to insure the rudder stem does not have any resistance or binding due to worn bushings or lack of lubrication... you may have to drill and add zerk fittings if possible.
but if there is any resistance in the stem, when the force of the water is on one side of the rudder, it will fall off course fairly easy one direction, but will be double hard to bring the rudder back the other direction... so in a sense, the friction in the stem amplifies the prop walk effect.
Most boats with right hand props will pull left under power, unless it has an offset prop shaft. My C27 will slowly creep left if I let go of the wheel. My buddy had a C28 Mk I and it will slam left if you let go of the wheel with no friction brake on. Under sail, no problem at all. He claims that the early C28 had a rudder design with too much area in front of the shaft and not enough behind it. Something that Catalina corrected on later models.