Fulcrum tillers

[franrick]

Hi there,
We are currently mono hull sailors and will soon make the move to a multi and spend our retirement on the water.

While recently browsing some catamaran add's we noticed one that looked like it had no steering wheel or tiller and on further reading of the add found out that it had "fulcrum tiller steering".

I have been involved in sailing for five over decades and have never heard this term until now.

I fully understand what a fulcrum is and how it works and can even imagine how it could be used to get the advantage needed to steer a boat but for the life of me have never seen or heard of it before.

I have tried Google with no results and tried looking elsewhere without much luck. Can someone shine some light on this for me or perhaps provide a link or pointer to where I might learn a bit more about this.

Thanks in advance.

[Redreuben]

Never heard if it either, is it whip staff steering perhaps ? A device used in NZ a bit more than elsewhere.


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[franrick]

Hi Redreuben,

I believe it's a form of whipstaff.

My understanding of how this particular system works is that there is a vertical shaft (tiller) amidships that passes through to tackle below decks which in turn operate the rudders.

With this particular cat it means standing on a platform to be able to see over the deckhouse and is exposed to the weather.

From my experience I find that I use the autopilot for about 95% of my travels but I wouldn't like to spend much time steering the boat the way it is set up now.

Perhaps I have it all wrong, hence my inquiry.