Rudder turns to port - no wind, under motor
- Thread starter sklitzky
- Start date
Randy Rutledge
Sustaining Member
this is the same prop walk that makes the boat pull to one side when backing. Just a fact of a prop power.
Our boat will turn off course if the wheel is left alone, too.
No real strain for our AP, and it makes little one and two degree corrections all the time. Wake stays pretty straight, tho.
As mentioned, it seems to be a function of prop rotation direction. More pronounced for fin keel designs and much less noticeable for long keels like Island Packets (to name just one example).
Kind of a trade off for sailing efficiency and maneuvering capability vs. tendency to go straight when the helm is unattended.
I have done several long deliveries on a long-keel Willard 30 cutter "nine ton" with its loooong shallow keel and prop in an aperture, and the running joke was that when turning the boat you turn the wheel and the boat "will take a message and get back to you!"
Everything really is a compromise....
Cheers,
Loren
No real strain for our AP, and it makes little one and two degree corrections all the time. Wake stays pretty straight, tho.
As mentioned, it seems to be a function of prop rotation direction. More pronounced for fin keel designs and much less noticeable for long keels like Island Packets (to name just one example).
Kind of a trade off for sailing efficiency and maneuvering capability vs. tendency to go straight when the helm is unattended.
I have done several long deliveries on a long-keel Willard 30 cutter "nine ton" with its loooong shallow keel and prop in an aperture, and the running joke was that when turning the boat you turn the wheel and the boat "will take a message and get back to you!"
Everything really is a compromise....
Cheers,
Loren
supersailor
Contributing Partner
Propwalk
Our E-34-2 all walks to the left under power. We don't like steering under power so we are almost always using the Autopilot. I haven't yet found a boat that I like to steer under power yet including powerboats. You could correct the pull under power with a trim tab but then it would pull funny under sail. The prop thrusts more on one side than the other. Counter rotating props would solve the problem with incredible complexity. :0
Bob Morrison
E-34 "Terra Nova"
Our E-34-2 all walks to the left under power. We don't like steering under power so we are almost always using the Autopilot. I haven't yet found a boat that I like to steer under power yet including powerboats. You could correct the pull under power with a trim tab but then it would pull funny under sail. The prop thrusts more on one side than the other. Counter rotating props would solve the problem with incredible complexity. :0
Bob Morrison
E-34 "Terra Nova"
Man, is that normal. When I first got my boat I was powering at 6 knots in a crowd of boats approaching the breakwater and ducked below to get my sunglasses. By the time I got back up the companionway ladder we were heeled over 20 degrees in a radical turn and every boat around me was taking evasive action. At slow speeds you can lock the wheel for a moment.
A wheel pilot or tillermaster is the answer, and really changes the experience of motoring anywhere.
A wheel pilot or tillermaster is the answer, and really changes the experience of motoring anywhere.