Rudders

[MtB]

My guess is the heaviness is due to the design and possibly rake?

You will probably need to look carefully out of the water to decide!

 

Yes I was wondering about this too. I noticed that the rudder pin (correct term?) on the Hudson boat was not vertical as on our current boat, but raked back at quite an angle. I'd estimate maybe 15 degrees back from vertical. Done like presumably so the rudder has a force returning it to the centre position when the tiller is not being pushed, which would also have the side effect of making the tiller heavier to push when under way.

 

The rudder blade was also very thick and therefore VERY heavy. Looked like 20mm plate to my eye, meaning that combined with the rake angle there could be a significant force needed to hold the tiller at any substantial angle away from from centre position, even while the boat is stationary. Annoyingly I didn't think to try pushing the tiller to one side while the boat was stationary to assess the extent of this effect.

 

Why do some boats have a raked rudder pin and others a vertical pin? I can't see the point of having the rake.

[bargeeboy]

Hi bargeeboy,

 

 

Changing the subject, it seems we have a mutual acquaintance. Chap called Cully. We know him from the late seventies when we both lived on boats in Eton. Last spoke to him a couple of years ago but now I hear he's moved back onto the cut and we only have his land-line phone number which is disconnected. Could you put us in touch with him perhaps? Be much appreciated if you could.

 

 

Cheers, Mike

 

You mssed him He left Alvecote on friday and was there all last week.

 

I'll tell him were asking after him

Edited November 2, 2008 by bargeeboy

[Chertsey]

There are several factors that contribute to heavy steering but the heavier the boat (and, by extension the deeper the hull and rudder is in the water), the harder it will be to steer with a tiller when under way. This is especially true on canals where there is insufficient depth of water under the hull. The only remedy is to slow down.

 

'Alnwick' is relatively heavy and my procedure for negotiating the sharpest bends on the southern section of the Oxford Canal involves slowing right down before the bend so that I can get the tiller across (without the need to exert excessive force) and then increasing the engine revolutions gradually to push the boat round - it usually works but not always

This is somewhat consoling. I was steering a big heavy boat yesterday and was horrified to discover that I seemed to find it harder to handle on the bends than the complete novices who went before me - but the difference was that we were going a lot faster than when they were steering and I wasn't controlling the speed (not a situation I was happy with) or my instinct would definitely have been to slow down.

[down the north]

Why do some boats have a raked rudder pin and others a vertical pin? I can't see the point of having the rake.

 

The reason behind this becomes noticeable when steering say an early FM&C and then a GU town or star class boat. Steerin straight it makes no difference, but as soon as you push the tiller over on a raked rudder stock, the rudder blade is put at an angle that causes the water thrust to push the stern slightly deeper in the water, and so give good 'fan hold' ( term used to describe the blades action in the water under ideal conditions) hence a woolwich will go round bends generally better due to this design feature, than vertical rudder stocks. In trade days, if a boat was returning empty, then water ballast would often be used in the starn end to keep the counter 'flat on', but often as not, ballast would be short and the boat would be an inch or 2 out so causing slow pick up when leaving locks. A raked rudder in this situation is always a help as it keeps the back end down when rounding turns,,

its a bit complicated but think what happens as the rudder turns regards angles,,

hope this helps,,

martin