Steering refit

We've been using the emergency tiller to steer the boat, which for a 36' boat isn't too crazy. I've heard some people say that wheels on boats under 40' are unwieldy (unwheeldy? har har) and not efficient. In any case, the tiller attaches to the top of the rudder post and provides a 3' lever that makes steering easy for one person. When we came down the Sound in May during a storm there were points when Emily and I were both putting our full weight in the tiller to steer the boat- that was fun and not scary at all.

Fixing the steering has been on our list of projects, but as the tiller works, it's been on the back burner. The system is a rudder attached to a post that comes up through the hull upon which the quadrant, a pie shaped metal piece about 12 inches in radius the center being fixed to the rudder post so that as the quadrant rotates from side to side on its axis the rudder is in turn moved. The arc of the quadrant has an upper and lower track that the steering cable rides in and as the cable is pulled from one side or the other the quadrant moves. The cable is wound around a drum at the bottom of the steering pedestal and so as the Wheel turns, the cable is taken up on one end of the drum and unwound on the other in turn moving the rudder. Whew, wouldn't a picture have been more clear? Yes.


This is a simple sketch showing a side view (port). There are 2 more sheaves (pulleys to you landlubbers) between the drum and the quadrant that change the direction of the cable and alter its angle between the two.

So, we have a drum, a rudder, a rudder post, a quadrant... but no cable. So I've been researching the cable dimensions and the proper way in which to reeve (sailor talk for passing line or rope or similar through or around another object) the cable around the drum and the quadrant. Here is the drum which is in need of cleaning and re-greasing.