About 10 years ago a friend of mine got a 45ft DuBois designed
racer built in
England in the early 80s for some US owner who did quite well with her on the Euro
racing circuit in the early to mid 80s. Anyway, she had this huge
single wheel which was deriguer back then which of course had it's own well aft of the
cockpit. My friend, himself a former active
racer and
marine pro, hated it and while doing changes to the
deck to reconfigure the boat as more of a
liveaboard cruiser he installed the tiller. I had the chance to steer the boat before and after. And even though I've never owned a boat with a tiller nor came up from small boat sailing, I have to agree with him that even on such a large boat a tiller is much more responsive not to mention more confortable as far as
cockpit layout is concerned, etc. Not to mention the ease of maintanence for
autopilot related issues. I crewed with them twice from St. Pete to
Miami and twice from
Miami to
New England and will confirm that the tiller is way better for the long trips. He harps on me to change mine to a tiller as it will open up my cockpit space considerably. I've taken it under advisement for a sometime in the future
project.