motor boat steering redux

Posted By: Rod M. WWP-19 "Spring", Nimble Vagabond "Loligo" S. Gulf Isl
Date: 3/20/07 8:22a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Motorboat Steering (pic) (Mark N, Nimble Arctic, Jax FL)

Hi Mark, Thanks for your insight into powered-prop steerage. In my earliest attempts, I ran the boat alone, then with another person and 200 lb of play sand near the bow. Skated ferociously. Moving the extra person aft helped a little. This weekend, I tilted the motor two notches forward/removed ballast/ moved 150 lb sand to the stern. You would never believe it was the same boat, the steering improved so much. She is still sensitive to weight placement, however. When she was running a straight course, I could steer quite well (and fairly quickly) by moving from one side of the cabin to the other. Since I changed two variables at once here (tilt and ballast placement) I still have some sorting to do, but I won't get that done for a couple of months. Ted Brewer was puzzled by the behaviour, but all he could recommend was keeping the bow down. I'll have to figure out if the motor adjustment simply brought the bow down enough to overwhelm the ballast shift that tended to bring the bow up (at rest by the pier.) Earlier, and later, I had played with autopilot response time, with no difference in chaos. Last run, it worked better at any setting, although not as good as I could do, especially when headed into the apparent wind. I'll update my progress when I return from BC. Rod McNabb