Out with the old and ugly and in with that one damned fine lookin tiller you knocked up.

In PBO magazine a few issues ago they did a article on the modern trend of small yachts having a wheel instead of a tiller and went through the progress of converting a tiller to a wheel on a existing boat and quoted the cost of the conversion as being many thousands of dollars

They posed he question of why you would want to be stuck at the back of a boat behind a wheel with limited access to sheet winches and main sheet and not being able to hide under a dodger while steering in bad weather

They showed a before and after pic of the boat in question and the wheel took up a lot of room in the cockpit compared to the original tiller

Also when the conversion was completed the throttle control lever was still mounted low on the side of the cockpit and I would assume this might make it hard to manoeuvre in close quarters working the wheel and throttle at the same time

In the photo that was posted in this thread it illustrated that the tiller saved a lot of weight on the boat compared to the original wheel

My thoughts and some will disagree

Regards Don

keensailor said..

just for my understanding, how do you end up with perfectly flat surfaces on the different timbers to allow glueing effectively. Do you use a circular saw then a planer?

Providing your circular saw doesn't have too much run out it is perfectly capable of cutting timber that is more than adequate for making tillers.
If you use a thicknesser then it may be that the timber ends up too smooth and will not be "toothy" enough to provide good glue keying, so a certain amount of surface roughness with a belt sander is a desirable thing.
As I had mentioned previously any timber that is oily in nature will need a good wash down with acetone or appropriate thinners.
The glue of choice should be Resorcinol Resin, it weathers better than epoxies and doesn't soften with heat, but these days with the proliferation of epoxy glues it is getting harder to find stockists that carry retail quantities.

claverton said..

The other disadvantage of wheel steering on a small boat is it's a pain in the arse and dangerous doing a helmsman changeover in a seaway, or even clambering behind the thing when solo ... you're exposed.

With your Currawong if your hand steering your normal seating position will be just behind the cabin, eyes just above the turned up rear edge of the cabin. I use a timing belt setup to adjust self steering gear. Only time I go to the rear of the cockpit is to tend my troll line.

My self steering gear and control lines have changed considerably since that video. I should make a new one.

thanks Cisco, I won't be getting you to write the copy.

It's got a large good quality compass in the top of it. I'll put it up with no reserve to get rid of it. One man's trash is another man's treasure.