Stearing Modification

[Denis Goyette]

Hi Guys

It's a long shot but here we go.

About 3 to 4 years ago i have seen a stearing gear modification by a builder.

I decided to apply the same principle, where he had a turnbuckle attached down at the floor in the lazarette to adjust it. He had great picture posted and all.

But after 4 years and 2 move  I cant located all the print out i had about the mod.

Now the time has come to hook it up and  ??? I cant recall how it went.

So if anyone recall or have any idea please send me in the right direction.

I searched the site using the search engine but had no luck.

Thanks

Denis

[Frank Hagan]

I think that was Nelson Surbrook's modification.  His site is gone, along with the old MSN Weekender site I ran that had the modification pictured in it.  I couldn't pull up the picture using the Internet Wayback Machine at http://web.archive.org for either site, but they did have this thumbnail picture.  Its not useful for much except to jog someone's memory who might have it on disk:

[Frank Hagan]

The other option is what Phil Gowans did ... and his site is still up at

http://www.pragdata.com/philboat/PlanSteer.html

This option uses a turnbuckle inside the lazarette at the steering column rather than outside. 

[capt jake]

Frank, believe it or not, that little teeny tiny picture did jog my memory.  I have that picture as well as the narrative and an actual picture to go with.  It was sent to me years ago by Nelson himself.  I don't think I can load it directly here as it is in .eml format.  Can I forward it to you for posting?

Dennis and Frank, I tried to upload it, but no success.  You can both expect an e-mail with the information.

[maligno]

These are what I found in my files though I decided to use a tiller:

[capt jake]

Yup, that's what I had on file also.  Not sure why I couldn't get them to load.?

I also went with a tiller...

Here is the narrative that went with the pictures:

Fellow boat builders

[Barry Pyeatt]

OK, here is the problem with his modification.  You are only working on whatever slack there is in the system.  Since the ends are stationary, the only thing moving is the tiller against a fixed line.  You are turning the shaft and applying additional tension to one side or the other. 

Instead of that. If you attach the turnbuckle to one side of the tiller  and have the other end of the steering line attached to the other side of the tiller, you can actually adjust tension in the system and the steering will work smoothly.  The system needs to be a closed loop for it to work correctly. 

But there were a lot of builders that tried to make it work his way.  And yes you could steer with it his way, but it was constantly fighting with varying degrees of tension and you couldn't really get a feel for what was going on with the steering. 

Sorry!

[Frank Hagan]

OK, here is the problem with his modification.  You are only working on whatever slack there is in the system.  Since the ends are stationary, the only thing moving is the tiller against a fixed line.  You are turning the shaft and applying additional tension to one side or the other. 

Instead of that. If you attach the turnbuckle to one side of the tiller  and have the other end of the steering line attached to the other side of the tiller, you can actually adjust tension in the system and the steering will work smoothly.  The system needs to be a closed loop for it to work correctly. 

But there were a lot of builders that tried to make it work his way.  And yes you could steer with it his way, but it was constantly fighting with varying degrees of tension and you couldn't really get a feel for what was going on with the steering. 

Sorry!

I know you had tried the Surbrook mod; I hadn't heard about the problems with it. 

Here's a pic from Phil Gowens' site linked above that shows the single turnbuckle attached to the tiller stub:

From http://www.pragdata.com/philboat/

[Craig]

Frank, I used this method but with slight modifications for my Vac.  I used a metal tiller made of bent water pipe.  The line was fixed at the windless and a turnbuckle was provided at each side of the tiller for center and tension adjustment.  Medium sized blocks ( much more free running than 1/4") were set at the sides with carrage bolts,  heads facing outboard.  After all the stretch was gone out of the sta-set line I have never had to adjust this and it has survived all I could put it through these last eight years.  Oh, the steering line is 1/4"

[Denis Goyette]

Hey guys

Thanks for all the great input. Here what I have done. I went with Phil Gowen's mod and did the same has Graig. I put one turnbuckle on each side with. I feels graet cant wait test it in the water.

Thanks Again.

Denis