Arne Kverneland wrote:I therefore make it to almost a ceremony to remove the tiller extension on each boat I convert. I have quite a collection now...

Arne

Please can you send me one :-P 

I found I loved leaning right out over the water on Fantail on sunny days, in light winds - a tiller extension was a real delight.  It was also useful for wriggling among boats at anchor (with the dinghy on deck) and picking up a mooring.  But generally I used it from the windward side, simply to enjoy a larger horizon.  I also very much appreciated being able to hunker down in less clement conditions.  I'm probably going to fit one to SibLim.  Of course, I could have a tiller on each rudder, but I seriously want to be able to steer from the shelter of the cabin when it's blowing and spray is flying and for that I want a central tiller.

Personally, I hate wheel steering!

Peter,

Yup.  For all the reasons you mentioned, I'm partial to tillers, too.  Honestly, I feel a bit silly with a 30 inch wheel to steer a 33 foot boat.  A bit like a little kid playing at skippering a big-boy ship.   I know that there are other reasons to like them;  a central location for the binnacle, cup holders, chart plotter.  And it doesn't sweep people out of the cockpit during tacks and gybes.  But I really do prefer the tiller.  I'm going to have to think about this one more.

Helm balance depends largely on hull form rather than upon the relationship between CLR and CE. Harrison Butler claimed that his "Vindilis" yawl, which he designed to have a balanced metacentric shelf, would continue to sail herself irrespective of the distribution of sail areas.

I recently sailed aboard a topsail schoner "HMS Pickle", built to the design of the ship that raced home with news of Nelson's defeat of the French and death in the battle of Trafalgar, 83 ft on deck and displacing 127 tons. She could be steered with a tiller, which sadly I was unable to do as a jolly boat stowed on the quarter deck would have prevented its use. Tom Cunliffe  is shown steering Pickle  with fingertip pressure on the tiller in an episode of the BBC TV series "The Boats that Built Britain", well worth seeing if you can get it on YouTube.

Hi Scott,

in order to resolve the weather helm issues with Arcadian I reviewed the drawings and calculations that I had done prior to the conversion from Bermudan rig. I found that the Practical Junk Rig recommendation on on lead of C of A over CLR did not hold good for Arcadian and I should have kept it the same as for the Bermudan rig, this meant either moving the rig forward or extending the keel aft to restore the original ratio. In the case of Arcadian it was more practical to extend the keel. At the same time I found that the original rudder was made wrong. It also appeared that the starboard half of the rudder shell was installed backwards making the blade asymmetrical, this lead to all sorts of problems. I ended up taking the rudder out and totally  rebuilding it. The work took about three months to complete, but successfully rectified the problems, she can now be balanced under sail and only requires one hand lightly on the tiller in most conditions. By the way Arcadian weighs 17.5 tons and is 49 feet long.

All the best with the conversion, David.

Scott,

I notice that the original Pearson 10m is shown with a tiller, so I guess she will work with that.

The Split Junk Rig, with its big balance sail will probably balance very well when close-hauled, and from what I hear, these sails seem to add less weather helm on a reach and run than my low-balanced, wide sails I tend to do.

I notice that several JR schooners have had a weather helm problem, but that is another story. Remember also that David’s Arcadian is probably three times the displacement of the Pearson 10m, so there is less room for error there before steering forces become intolerable.

To save you from fighting on too many fronts, I suggest:
If the wheel steering needs to be re-built, drop it and fit the tiller instead. If the wheel-steering is basically good, keep it for now  -  the project is big enough as it is.

When the boat is in the water and is sailing under the new rig, then you can re-assess the steering.

Arne

PS: It appears that a tiller will occupy much of the cockpit, when in use. If you plan to sail her with a windvane, I suggest you consider letting the vane drive a trimtab-controlled auxiliary rudder on the stern. The main rudder could then be locked to act as a big yaw-damping skeg, and its tiller could be swung up, out of the way.