i'm Really a Tiller Guy, because i Like the Responsiveness of a Multihull...

[Pipeline]

to a tiller. with a wheel, however, do you think a boat should lock out port to starboard with one 360 degree wheel turn, or as many as four 360 degree turns as i've seen on several 60'+ boats? is one 360 degree turn port to starboard too responsive? It wouldn't seem so to me, but for those of you who have steered in big seas with both tiller (as most of the french do) and wheel, how responsive do you think a wheel should be? aloha.

[cdennyb]

I think it's more of a requirement filled by the boat designer and mechanical marine engineer myself. If you have a very heavy (large) vessel the leverage factor comes into play and if you pull the rudder hard to the side and impose loads far beyond the design limit you could have a failure. If the one turn lock to lock scenario is imposed on a lighter displacement vessel it respoonds more quickly and thus the loads are lessened due to the response time and weight of the vessel.
We need the comments of a marine engineer here now.
just my opinion.

[David M]

Having a gear reduction gives the helmsman a mechanical advantage. The greater the force the more gear reduction that is required. The disadvantage is less feel for the forces acting on the rudder plus the greater amount of time it takes to go hard over to hard over.