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dawncraft 27 poor steering on trent


keithh

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After a long refit with lots of snags we finally took our Dawncraft 27 centre cockpit out of the marina on the river trent,the boat has a 15hp Honda outboard to which I fitted a extension rudder hoping that would help the steering,but it was terrible on the Trent it was a fairly calm day down near Shardlow.Because it was handling so poorly we decided to go back to the moorings to check everything was working properly I,m wondering if it would be better without the extension rudder.Some advice and tips would be greatly appreciated

 

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Presumably, you have operated it before you fitted the extension; what was the handling like then, or have you just bought it?  Is the propeller properly submerged?  Is it sticking out below the transom at all?

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I bought this boat some years ago as a complete wreck just a shell,but I had a small cruiser some years ago and just assumed the extension rudder would help,since I put this post on I,ve read quite a bit of usefull advice,I tried to make sure I bought the correct shaft length (longshaft) from what I,ve read the problem could be extra ballast needed in the bow possibly

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I,ve fitted a flexible water tank which I emptied for the winter but needs to be refilled that would be a good start maybe maybe a couple of sandbags in the front 

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Like mross, I can't see how an increase in rudder area would make the steering any worse, although it could make the steering heavier. 

If the centre of gravity is too far back (cured by ballast at the bow), I'd expect the steering to become very sensitive and twitchy, as well as being adversely effected by any cross wind, which would tend to make the boat turn downwind. 

A local canal society's trip boat (35 ft narrowboat) had its handling improved by stacking bricks in the bow (probably about a ton, if memory is correct), and I'd think the same effect would be much more pronounced on a GRP boat.

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People fit an extension rudder on their o/b primarily so you have some control when not under power, that being one of the drawbacks of an outboard.  As the rudder swivels with the prop I can't see how it would affect handling, our first boat had one and when I removed it I couldn't detect any difference. 

Very light grp boats with o/b's are skittish but as others have said it's worth experimenting with ballast up front.   

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  • 2 weeks later...

When I was looking at Cruisers at Sawley a number of years ago, the salesman told me Dawncraft's had very shallow draught.  As such they tend to skate around on the surface when it's windy.

More ballast might help, but it could be just this type of boat's 'character.'

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Exactly as others are saying ......

* Learn to steer effectively without over-steering followed by over-correcting, it causes zig-zagging until you hit something.

* Ballast heavily, you want to be drawing at least 18" over the whole length, skidding around on the surface like a ping pong ball is useless.

* Learn how and when to use a short burst of power at low speed in order to manoeuvre.

* Add a rudder to your outboard/Z drive

* Become instinctive as to where your propeller is pointing in relation to your wheel at all times.

* Be careful whom you vote for on Thursday, you may get what you wish for ...... Gulp!

* Don't forget my birthday, it's July 18th

* Throw away all Bri-Nylon socks, keep only cotton or in Winter wool.

* Keep your cables well lubricated, and remember grease eventually dries up and has totally the opposite desired effect.

 

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