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Steering wheel or tiller


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1 minute ago, Bromleyxphil said:

what would you spec on a new 10 x 60 widebeam and why?  My gut tells me that steering is something else to go wrong but I don't know how reliable the units are?

phil

A no brainer. Tiller, less to go wrong and infinitely precise. I oft wished the Notts Princess could have been small enough for a tiller instead of poxy hydraulic wheel steering.

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2 minutes ago, Robbo said:

I have hydraulic wheel steering, but I have a nice warm wheelhouse for it to fo in.   If I was having a narrowboat type stern it would be tiller.  If your having a wheelhouse, wheel.

What about..........a pram hood,  yes I will await the abuse

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2 minutes ago, Bromleyxphil said:

What about..........a pram hood,  yes I will await the abuse

Tiller, as it’s still a narrowboat like stern.  Wheel is nice on larger canals when you have enough water, takes a while to get used to in smaller canals where you may feel you are correcting a lot.  Tiller you don’t notice yourself correcting.

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Current widebeam has a wheel, I must have had a brain fart at the time, as all previous boats in my life had tillers. 

It is okay, but it did fail when on the river in the middle of nowhere. Linkage had come loose from the hydraulic ram to the rudder.

Fortunately have an emergency tiller. 

I do find a tiller nicer to use on the twisty bits of the river. As said above already, more pricise and you can make rapid changes.

I guess having a wheel one can be more social as more people can join you on the stern deck. Boat has some nice seating on the stern that can't really be used fully with tiller in place while cruising.

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2 hours ago, Bromleyxphil said:

What about..........a pram hood,  yes I will await the abuse

Spawn of the devil. I would rather get trench foot and die of hypothermia than have such a monstrosity on any boat of mine.

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I like the idea of wheel steering, but whenever I've tried it on other boats it's less precise and slower to react. It just takes getting used to I guess - fine on open water, big rivers and anytime you're moving at more than tickover, but for slower close-quarters handling when steering really matters I'd rather have a tiller.

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3 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

I don't think you like them do you,Tim?

Nearly as bad as cratch covers. Had one of those silly things on the Udson and all it was good for was cracking my head on the bloody wood under the cover, alright for pigmies under about 4 feet tall.

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4 minutes ago, blackrose said:

I like the idea of wheel steering, but whenever I've tried it on other boats it's less precise and slower to react. It just takes getting used to I guess - fine on open water, big rivers and anytime you're moving at more than tickover, but for slower close-quarters handling when steering really matters I'd rather have a tiller.

I would say a wheel is better when manoeuvring at slower close quarters like when turning around is that I can just leave the rudder on fully over and go back/forward on the engine controls.   Harder on a tiller especially on a wide beam where your controls may not be too hand.

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If it's geared up properly a wheel can be just as responsive as a tiller, often they are geared too low. 

14 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Nearly as bad as cratch covers. Had one of those silly things on the Udson and all it was good for was cracking my head on the bloody wood under the cover, alright for pigmies under about 4 feet tall.

Innisfree had wheel steering, a pram hood and a cratch cover, I was so proud, and smug when it was chucking it down, gave me a nice feeling inside to see others suffering. 

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6 minutes ago, nb Innisfree said:

If it's geared up properly a wheel can be just as responsive as a tiller, often they are geared too low. 

Innisfree had wheel steering, a pram hood and a cratch cover, I was so proud, and smug when it was chucking it down, gave me a nice feeling inside to see others suffering. 

But we simply don't move in rain or high winds why the hell would anyone? :D

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My wheel experience is on a 65ft x 10ft 6in  disabled trip boat. It was great on that as it makes for more space on the stern deck and no worries about people getting in the way or being within the swing of the tiller. It also gives better sight lines as you stand at the front of the rear deck to steer so no one can stand in front of you! I got really used to it and pretty much preferred it in the end. I think a wheel takes more getting used to as it is less intuitive but once you are used to it it makes no difference. IMO.

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23 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

But we simply don't move in rain or high winds why the hell would anyone? :D

Can you predict the weather? In England? 

Beautiful England with Yorkshire its jewel. 

Edited for punctuation 

 

Edited by nb Innisfree
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Having had both, a tiller without a shadow of doubt. Don't listen to the          on here who say "do not have a pram hood" get one and let the        drive their boats in the pouring rain and the freezing cold. Just make sure if you get a pram hood you have good visibility. With mine I found that heavy rain did reduce my forward visibilty somewhat. I would say if you get a pram hood then get one with solid front and a proper window so that you can have a wiper but I don't think you can get one of those. A wheel house is what you need for that sort of setup but you cannot lower a wheelhouse easily The big advantage of having a pram hood is that when it rains or is freezing cold you can raise it and boat in comfort, warmth and dryness whilst the         boaters boat soaking wet and freezing cold. If it is sunny then you can lower it the only problem with that is that then you have to put up with the        looking at you with disdain. Just ignore them and carry on boating in comfort.

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5 minutes ago, pete.i said:

Having had both, a tiller without a shadow of doubt. Don't listen to the          on here who say "do not have a pram hood" get one and let the        drive their boats in the pouring rain and the freezing cold. Just make sure if you get a pram hood you have good visibility. With mine I found that heavy rain did reduce my forward visibilty somewhat. I would say if you get a pram hood then get one with solid front and a proper window so that you can have a wiper but I don't think you can get one of those. A wheel house is what you need for that sort of setup but you cannot lower a wheelhouse easily The big advantage of having a pram hood is that when it rains or is freezing cold you can raise it and boat in comfort, warmth and dryness whilst the         boaters boat soaking wet and freezing cold. If it is sunny then you can lower it the only problem with that is that then you have to put up with the        looking at you with disdain. Just ignore them and carry on boating in comfort.

Innisfree had a forward sloping windscreen which kept the rain out when the screen was folded down. 

Edited by nb Innisfree
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3 minutes ago, pete.i said:

The big advantage of having a pram hood is that when it rains or is freezing cold you can raise it and boat in comfort, warmth and dryness whilst the         boaters boat soaking wet and freezing cold

Or are moored up with a nice cup of cocoa watching the passing boats from the warmth of their cabin pittying the poor bugger that will have to do the next lock:)

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27 minutes ago, nb Innisfree said:

If it's geared up properly a wheel can be just as responsive as a tiller, often they are geared too low. 

(snip)

Better low geared than heavy!

I drove the first "centre cockpit" Sea Otter, and it was a real pain. IIRC, about 21/2 turns lock to lock, and needing a fair old heave to move it. I also drive a wheel steered boat with about 6 turns lock to lock, and that's a pleasure to steer.

However, tiller is a lot easier, and far preferable, provided that it can be fitted.

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1 minute ago, rusty69 said:

Or are moored up with a nice cup of cocoa watching the passing boats from the warmth of their cabin pittying the poor bugger that will have to do the next lock:)

Not forgetting that satisfying feeling of superiority. 

1 minute ago, Iain_S said:

Better low geared than heavy!

I drove the first "centre cockpit" Sea Otter, and it was a real pain. IIRC, about 21/2 turns lock to lock, and needing a fair old heave to move it. I also drive a wheel steered boat with about 6 turns lock to lock, and that's a pleasure to steer.

However, tiller is a lot easier, and far preferable, provided that it can be fitted.

Innisfree had 2.5 turns lock to lock and it felt perfect. 

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5 minutes ago, nb Innisfree said:

Innisfree had 2.5 turns lock to lock and it felt perfect. 

A more fully balanced rudder than the Sea Otter, probably! Also, Sea Otters can suffer from a stiff rudder, due to the design, and that might have been the case with the centre cockpit prototype. 

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1 hour ago, rusty69 said:

Or are moored up with a nice cup of cocoa watching the passing boats from the warmth of their cabin pittying the poor bugger that will have to do the next lock:)

Precisely. Always makes me giggle when I here about read about boating in crap weather and keeping dry. Why the hell boat in bad weather? we stopped doing that twenty years ago having learnt how daft it was in our first few years of boating. One simply stays put.

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7 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Precisely. Always makes me giggle when I here about read about boating in crap weather and keeping dry. Why the hell boat in bad weather? we stopped doing that twenty years ago having learnt how daft it was in our first few years of boating. One simply stays put.

We're staying put in Thrupp now but we did boat in high(ish) winds to get here this morning. 

Reason: to get to somewhere nice rather than Oxford with its long lines of scruffy boats. That was the first and last time we use Sheepwash channel. We've done it once so we don´t have to do it again. Next time it will be Dukes Cut (stoppages permitting).

Sadly our Thames licence expired yesterday, I'm missing the river already after a fab 2 weeks. Have to wait until next year now for our 2nd visit.

 

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17 minutes ago, MrBeethoven said:

We're staying put in Thrupp now but we did boat in high(ish) winds to get here this morning. 

Reason: to get to somewhere nice rather than Oxford with its long lines of scruffy boats. That was the first and last time we use Sheepwash channel. We've done it once so we don´t have to do it again. Next time it will be Dukes Cut (stoppages permitting).

Sadly our Thames licence expired yesterday, I'm missing the river already after a fab 2 weeks. Have to wait until next year now for our 2nd visit.

 

As I started to read this post a hire boat came a cropper in the winding hole here due to wind and inexperience. I have just rescued them being a superstar boathandler and all that. I wouldn't be boating today but hirers have no choice. River is fab innitt :) should be this way for a beer soon then?

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