Tiller vs. Wheel Steering?

[filthy liberal scum]

Joe; its a matter of personal preference

I personally like tiller steering my self. I have an O'day 30. as it was originally designed i wouldn't and didn't like the tiller at first. after I changed the rake on the mast, then designed and built a new rudder. now i love it. it depends a lot on some design factors. one is the mast placement and rake to get as neutral helm as possible and get the boat balanced. IE the placement of the sail plan relative to the center of lateral resistance. if this is wrong then tiller steering can be a bear. the other big item is the design of the rudder. without going into some techie stuff, the pivot point of the rudder relative to the lead of the max chord play a big part on how much effort is required to turn it. a properly designed one requires almost no effort, which of course makes tiller steering a lot of fun, just like sailing a dingy. the J-35 and other series that had tillers are a case in point, as also the soveral-33 I'm sure there are lots of others out there but these are the only ones I'm personally familiar with. they both have their pros and cons. the tiller does allow you to just raise it up and out of the way when at the dock or on the hook making for a lot more room in the cockpit.s/v Pasa Pasa?

 

[Doghouse]

Label Tiller

If your wife is going to steer, and not experianced, engrave in the tiller handle..."PUSH TWORDS TROUBLE"She should understand how to steer with a wheel.

 

[filthy liberal scum]

one more thought!

if you have people steering with a tiller and your going up wind and they arn't experienced. tell them if they are in a panic for some reason, just let go of the tiller and the boat will just come up into the wind. they can't get into trouble by just letting go. with a wheel it will continue on the course after they have let go. it will not self center the rudder.s/v Que Pasa?

 

[Anchor Down]

Stu's Chicken and Egg

And how did Stu Jackson DEVELOP the sensitivity to "get the same feel when sailing with my wheel as we got from the tiller on the earlier boats"?By sailing boats with tillers, then transferring that sensitivity to the wheel-steered boat, the same way I did it.To original poster: there's nothing at all wrong or bad about a tiller in a boat that size. You used never to see wheels in boats under thrity-five feet; now you find them on boats twenty-seven feet long. Much of that change is marketing, as has been mentioned.A boat that size doesn't need the mechanical advantage a wheel offers. IMHO a boat that size, esp. if it is your first boat, should have a tiller, because you will learn about steering, sail trim and balance, weather helm, and become a better sailor with better instincts after one season of sailing than if you had started off with a wheel, which tends to hide those small but important variables behind its mechanical advantage.

 

[Alan]

Wheel or tiller?

Bob, I notice you're sailing a Nonsuch with the wheel missing. For sure there are benefits to having a wheel. Leverage is probably the greatest gain. However, with the gain of leverage comes an equal loss in feel and rudder feedback. On a vessel with a tendency toward weather helm a wheel can be an advantage. On a vessel with a light helm, such as our Soverel 33, the rudder could begin to stall very easily without that feedback which is so vital to the helm.

 

[Bob Todd]

Actually, the wheel is there...

...just out of frame in the picture.Cheers,Bob

 

[Fred Ficarra]

Ya know, I remember an Americas Cup yacht that

had a TILLER. It was a 12 meter. One of the first Australian competitors wasn't it? That was back in the '70s. I'm hard pressed to recall any designs larger than the upper 20's with a tiller now.

 

[Brian D]

I think this is...

a misleading statement."because you will learn about steering, sail trim and balance, weather helm, and become a better sailor with better instincts after one season of sailing than if you had started off with a wheel, which tends to hide those small but important variables behind its mechanical advantage."This comes from time spent on the water, not on a tiller or a wheel. If the CE/CLR is not balanced, regardless of wheel or tiller, the boat is going to fight you to head up or fall off. Being on a wheel or tiller makes no difference in this case.

 

[Warren 22]

Wheel vs. Tiller

The tiller has the "feel."The wheel has the convience.Rack & Pinon wheel steering has both.

 

[Stu Jackson]

How Stu learned to steer

Anchor Down (#23) made certain assumptions that may not be particularly valid. True, I learned, as most of us have, on a tiller.But I RE-learned on our wheel. I recently read in one of the better sailing stories by a popular writer: "How do your steer with a wheel? Spoke-by-spoke."Many people over-steer with wheels. Just give a kid a wheel and your boat will be all over the place in no time. It ain't a car.If you steer spoke-by-spoke with a wheel, you very quickly learn that a little movement is usually better, and that you can "feel the groove" with a wheel just as well (equipment issues re: "feedback" notwithstanding).Finding that groove many times works by NOT holding onto the wheel, but just working with one of the spokes, which, come to think of it, is just like a tiller, in a little bit different position.Just wanted to clear up some assumptions, and maintain my feeling expressed in my earlier post.Thanks, and have at it, mateys! Bob's and Brian's posts were great!Stu

 

[Anchor Down]

Tiller to Spoke

Stu, did you suffer from oversteering your first wheeled boat, or did you apply your knowledge of boathandling learned on a tiller, and already know not to oversteer the wheeled boat?As you can see, I'm still trying.:^)

 

[sailme2]

On my smaller

boats - 18 - 22ft, we had tiller steering. The 30 we have now has a wheel, and I can't imagine going back. Wheel steering is much easier on the aging arms, shoulders, back, etc.