Steering direction

[Lopez Mike]

O.K. troops. Here's one you can chew on.

I am building a new steering system for Folly. The old one was horrible in several ways including that it didn't work. A fatal flaw.

The new wheel will be along side the engine such that the axis is athwartship. That is, the top of the wheel will be pushed forwards and rearwards when steering.

I had been designing it so that pushing forwards would steer to Starboard. But considering all the other stupid things I have done before, I thought I would ask the group if there is any standard and what it might be?

[Chris W]

My gut feeling would be clockwise to starboard and counter clockwise to port. It just feels natural to me.

[Dhutch]

Yes, assuming you will be somewhat 'side on' facing the wheel ie, siting to the side of it when in use, I too would go for that convention.

Hence if you are sitting on the right, facing the wheel in the center, moving wheel clockwise would movethe top forwards and cause the boat to turn to starboard.

The only time I can see the reverse making more sence is if the wheel is mount to the side of the boat and you are sitting with your back to the same side such that you are in effect accessing the wheel from the reverse side.

Or in short, I would go with what felt right, convention aside. Which is proberbly as much convention as there is!


Daniel

[Lopez Mike]

Hmm. Now I'm not sure if I have gained anything. Let's see.

First, there is no clock wise or counter clock wise. When I am sitting and facing the bow seated on the starboard side of the engine, I am looking at the wheel edge on. I am holding the top spoke in my right hand. The only motion will be away from me or back towards me.

Now what I was thinking about doing was rigging the gear so that pushing away from me would turn the boat to starboard. I'm not sure why that seemed right to me.

Now I think I'm hearing from everyone is that it should be the other way. That's good because Barbara just walked by and told me in no uncertain terms that it will be away to port. And you know whose vote counts!

Thank you. I'll go back under my rock for now.

[S. Weaver]

No, no, we're with you ... pushing forward - or clockwise as the others said - will send your bow over to starboard. Pulling back - or counterclockwise - will nudge you over to port. I've seen a number of boats like this.

[Lopez Mike]

Aha! See? Further unclearness. My wheel is on the starboard side so pushing forward rotates it counter clockwise viewed from inside the boat. (Where I am, most of the time!)

And my partner has made it clear that pushing forward should make the bow turn to port.

[farmerden]

Now there's the problem! You've got the wheel on the wrong side of the boat! Didn't you learn anything when you visited? My side wheel is on the starboard side and pushing the wheel forward will turn the boat to the left [port] So why do I tie up on the starboard side?? [Sorry that's another story ] I'm thinking that if I had a wheel over there [port side] that the cable that returns down that side of the boat would have to be pulled back to turn to port. Now I'm confused .What was your question again?? Den
Oh drat -in rereading your last post you did learn something! You did it right! AND of course your partner is always right-you've still got alot to learn-but I think there's hope for you!

[Lopez Mike]

It's easy to be humble when you have so much to be humble about.

Now I think I will make the pitman arm on the rudder shaft double ended so I can change it over from time to time. People will learn not to steam in close formation with me!

[steamboatjack]

If it is a wheel, then it must have a clockwise and anticlockwise direction! viewed naturally looking at the wheel boss.
it does not matter where you put it in the boat. The usual convention is clockwise to turn the boat to starboard.
Jack

[PeteThePen1]

Yup, I can feel for you Mike!

I solved the 'which way to turn' by having the solution forced upon me. The wheel was going to be in front of me, in a nice conventional manner. I then did the measurements and found that to do that I needed a bigger boat, so it got slid to the left and squashed against the gunwale. In my head, that made forward to go right and back to left almost seem normal.

Regards

Pete