So, this pirate walks into a bar...

The bartender looks at him and says, "You know you have a steering wheel sticking out of your pants?"
The pirate replies, "Arrrrgh! It be drivin' me nuts!"

Oh, yeah, I got the steering fixed! I went to the store where they sell boat stuff, and picked up 4 fathoms (thats 24 ft. to you land lubbers) of Sta-Set X line. Sta-Set X is a high performance line for halyards and other running rigging. It has a 12 strand braided Dyneema (another brand of spectra) covered by a braided polyester cover for UV and abrasion protection. Dyneem is 5x stronger than steel cable of equivalent diameter. I got 5/16" line, not for the 3 1/2 ton breaking strength, but because the diameter best matched the drum and sheaves of the steering system. I rove the line through the steering column sheave, and then seized the ends to two stainless thimbles leaving enough left over to be able to adjust/tighten the system. We got a wooden steering wheel a while ago and have been waiting to be able to use it. We think it looks quite dashing! I knew the line would have about 3-5% stretch so I waited to low tide when I knew the rudder would be sitting in the mud and give me some resistance to work out some slack and stretch the line. I retighted the line and on the 4th of July we took the boat out. It was really nice to not have to do acrobatics to work the tiller to steer the boat and keep on course. Even docking was much much smoother.

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.

Pedestal repaint

The pedestal on our boat is the original Cheoy Lee Edson knockoff. The wheel turns a beveled pinion which turns a matching gear attached to a shaft that turns a drum just below the cockpit sole. Edson steerers have a chain sprocket driven by the wheel, the bicycle type chain is bent directly to two lengths of cable which are riven through two sheaves outboard and then to opposite sides of the quadrant. The Cheoy Lee version has a single cable doubled in the middle at the drum and then led as the Edson models. I said all of that so that I could say this: our steering is broken. The starboard sheave broke free from the hull and the cable and its splicing hardware is missing. I have since reglassed the sheave block to the hull and overhauled both sheaves. I just need to find specs on the cable to use for the system and then reassemble it.

In the meantime, I have taken the pedestal which was flaking badly down to bare metal and primed and topcoated it with Interlux Brightsides. Its all shiny and new looking- to bad it doesn't do anything yet.