knot top dead center of steering wheel?

[Kelkara]

Originally Posted by waterman46

Thank you for teaching me a new term, "down market" though not quite certain what that means. Anyway my boat came with a piece of black electrical tape wrapped around the wheel in that magic spot. But with time, hydraulic steering will slip a little in one or the other direction and that tape was no longer near where it should be.

Another problem with a piece of tape is that you can't feel where it is without looking at the wheel, especially with gloved hands ... often I want to be looking at the sails, or other boats and rocks nearby, and at night it's dark and I can't see the wheel anyway ... at some point I'll upgrade to a knot.

[michaelratinter]

I always center the turk's head on my wheel before switching off auto pilot.

[Sailshabby]

Originally Posted by AnglaisInHull

Thanks for confirming that my handicraft is classed “down market”.

Don’t feel bad. I use a pair of vise grips...

[stnick]

I have a helm with the entire wheel is blue Parra Cord with a turks head dead center . And I have a different color one so when I back up the other can be dead center so she will go straight back !
For me its a no brainer .

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I've also always just used a piece of tape.

Mine is a zip tie on the spoke itself.
I just had to replace it the other day, apparently the life of a zip tie on a wheel spoke is four years.
White zip tie, black would probably last longer

[HBrew]

Get 3D Knots on your iPad and you’ll have a lovely Turk’s Head in no time (I think it took me three attempts to get it right) and as someone said earlier, every time you use it, it’ll make you happy 😃

[hzcruiser]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Mine is a zip tie on the spoke itself.
I just had to replace it the other day, apparently the life of a zip tie on a wheel spoke is four years.
White zip tie, black would probably last longer

Don't you feel a little bit ripped off?

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by hzcruiser

Don't you feel a little bit ripped off?

Knot at all. I have a big bag of I believe 1000 of them, still have quite a few left.

The zip tie is also my rudder indicator for my autopilot, if I see the zip tie very far from center then I know I need to trim the sails.

[Greg4cocokai]

Originally Posted by SVTatia

4 lead, 3 bight turk's head knot - Paracord guild

+I. 4 lead if splitting a spoke or 3 lead if not, much easier to tie. [emoji41]

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by akprb

Helm, the steering wheel is in your car :-)

He's actually talking about the "wheel" -- the helm is rather all of the steering gear, of which the wheel is only one part, or steering in general. Not indeed the "helm".



"A ship's wheel . . . is a device used aboard a water vessel to steer that vessel and control its course. Together with the rest of the steering mechanism, it forms part of the helm." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship's_wheel


"Steering wheel" sounds a little funny -- slightly redundant on a boat where there are no other wheels -- but I don't think there is anything fundamentally wrong with the term.


"Helm" as a salty-sounding synonym for "wheel" is worse to my ear, like "head" for "toilet" or "line" for "rope". To my ear, using these terms like that sounds like a land person trying too hard to sound nautical. All of these things are not the same. "Heads" is the compartment or even the general area of the vessel, where you relieve yourself, not the porcelain device, which is a toilet, on land or at sea. "Line" is a piece of rope or other cordage being put to certain specific purposes, not cordage in general, which is rope, cable, or small stuff depending on its size.




/pedant mode -- carry on!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I've also always just used a piece of tape.

And I confess to using a cable tie


But thanks very much to the OP, who has inspired me to do a proper knot next time I'm down on the boat.


Docking my boat at 31 and 95/100 registered tonnes requires good information about rudder angle, so I always switch my autopilot control to show rudder angle, when I'm doing harbor maneuvers.



Nevertheless, seeing immediately whether the wheel is centered seems to still be important. I'll be learning the Turk's Head soon My father did one of these to our last boat, but I just never got around (over 10 years! ) to doing it on this one.

[FabioC]

Great to learn that I just used the wrong knot for this...

A related question: do you use additional markers on the wheel? (e.g., 30 degree angle on each side) which additional markers do you find useful? I was thinking a 80% to hard port or hard starboard could be handy to avoid the rudder to stall in reverse...

[smith8273]

The previous owner has a tape marker, I have been planning on tying a turk's head for going on four years now...

[peteh007]

Check this out for a plethora of great ideas to mark the top of your Wheel...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXfVRZ_hF8g

[rramsden]

Something to keep in mind is some wheels have drift. Center changes over time. Depends on your steering linkage. You may want to do something temporary to test that.