Operate boat while sitting down?

[Pizzazz]

Most cruising (as opposed to racing) is done on autopilot, so typically people sit and watch the autopilot do the work. If hand steering for a brief time you could do either sitting or standing up as you please. If you do not have good visibility while sitting, consider cameras (I have one forward, one starboard and one port). Once you get used to instrument steering (cameras, radar alarms, AIS) you can practice until you feel comfortable with boats passing by you very close. The next step is that you steer from below. I call this instrument sailing. Some people frown at the idea but like everything new, it takes practice to become good at it. You lose some situational awareness and certain objects will not show up on the cameras or radar. Then again, most close calls I have had while in the cockpit distracted. Just enjoy your hobby.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by jsc7

Another issue I might mention is security. In aircraft we have harnesses that fasten us securely in the seat and that is for good reason. On boats I never see seats with harnesses or other security measures. If someone is standing at the helm and the boat lurches they could be thrown from the helm or dashed into a hard object, while the wheel spins out of control. It seems inadvisable to me to have a pilot standing at the wheel completely insecured.

It's very doubtful on a slow moving monohull that you could be thrown from the helm if the boat lurches

I was "thrown from the helm" only once so far and it took a lot more than a lurch and we were both in harnesses (double trapped)

It was on a Nacra 6.0 Beach Catamaran and I was going upwind at maybe 15 knots when my leeward daggerboard hit a piling that was under water........ The windward hull was up out of the water at the time.

My female crew and I were both trapped out at the time. The boat stopped and we were thrown forward and slammed into the windward hull as the boat pitchpoled

Luckily we didn't get knocked out.

One good thing though was that we could stand in the water where we pitchpoled. It was that shallow.

I was trying to stay in the lead and cut to close on a point of land that stuck out into the sound.

On the monohull I have now, I'm usually standing so I can see better over the dodger if near other boats/ships but the autopilot is steering much of the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTCG6nt3-tg

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Indeed. Furthermore, what percentage of your miles to you cover hand steering? 1%? 0.1%? ....

Very low % for me, if not in close quarters the auto is likely on.

[Jim Cate]

As for the vision thing that keeps coming up, this goes back to the OP's premise that it is a design problem. Obviously, forward vision is solvable.

Right... we're gonna redesign our cockpits, deck houses, dodgers and steering stations, just so we can see whilst seated. Buy lots of blades for your Sawzall and a bit of resin and glass and have at it.

You may see this as a viable solution... I'll just stand when required.

Jim

[markpierce]

Not ideal, thinwater. But if one mostly steers with an autopilot, one might be willing to stand while manually piloting.

[Chris 249]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

now I am almost never sitting behind the helm, why would you want to?

For the same reason that people drive sportscars, surf waves, go skiing, ride road bicycles down mountains, carve lines along singletrack in a mountain bike, or steer a racing dinghy, cat or windsurfer - because it's FUN!

[belizesailor]

Just finishing up a week running a Leopard 47 with a proper pilot chair with lots of adjustment options, but I still found myslef standing when steering by hand or close quarters under power.

Comfy place to perch with good visibility when underway under auto though.

[jsc7]

I know I didn't mention this in the OP, but here I am talking about long-distance cruising boats. If you are going out for a 1-hour picnic in the harbor, standing is easy. Standing up in one place for an 8-hour watch is a different story.

Now, we have autopilots but I get the idea that historically the practice was to stand--even if it was for 8 hours--which is why apparently boats and ships have their wheels in a standing configuration.

I guess that is ok if you are a 23-year-old helmsman in the Navy, but standing for 8 hours is not something I am looking forward to. I guess autopilot is the only solution.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by jsc7

I know I didn't mention this in the OP, but here I am talking about long-distance cruising boats. If you are going out for a 1-hour picnic in the harbor, standing is easy. Standing up in one place for an 8-hour watch is a different story.

Now, we have autopilots but I get the idea that historically the practice was to stand--even if it was for 8 hours--which is why apparently boats and ships have their wheels in a standing configuration.

I guess that is ok if you are a 23-year-old helmsman in the Navy, but standing for 8 hours is not something I am looking forward to. I guess autopilot is the only solution.

"Traditionally," a turn at the wheel was 1-2 hours, within a 4-hour watch. Not 8 hour standing in one place.

[TeddyDiver]

I'm 100% hand steering, just uncomfortable anyone else doing it "wrong" IMO. Not that I'd say anything but not feeling OK. So not going to let stupid electronics to do that either, silly me
Anyway usually I find my self sitting on the weather side gunwale, sidedeck or what ever feels the best my other feet on the wheel or lying on the cockpit backseat again steering with my feet.
To my new-to-be boat I'm considering a hammock and a tiller with some bungee setup..

Ps. For that profile picture had to stand up :-D

[Cheechako]

A U T O P I L O T

[TrentePieds]

@jsc

As Thinwater sez: NOBODY stands at the wheel for 8 hours.

A "watch" (a "shift" to landlubbers) was never 8 hours. A watch is 4 hours except for the "dogs" that are two hours each. A "trick" (at the wheel) would normally be two hours, but if conditions were rough, the trick might be shortened to a single hour.

"Four hours on, four hours off" becomes tiring in the long run due to sleep deprivation, and is not a "watch bill" you would normally use. "Four hours on eight hours off" is much better, which, of course, requires that the ship's company be broken into three "watches" ("watch" in this context meaning "part of the crew").

But since we are playing with toy sailing ships, we cannot work by that system as our ship's company is not usually numerous enuff to permit it. What we can do, with even just one companion on board, is stand one-hour tricks "turn and turn about". Steering is the simplest of tasks and novices will do a creditable job after a brief demonstration.

I am myself extremely averse to wheel-steering in toy sailing ships. You don't need the mechanical advantage it affords till you are somewhere in the fifty-foot range, and when you steer by tiller, you sit. Tiller-steering is, IMO, far more comfortable and also gives you a far better feel for what the boat is doing. You sit, normally on the weather cockpit bench or on the weather cockpit coaming, but if you get tired of that, you can shift around easily enuff either by standing in the cockpit of by sitting on the lee bench or coaming for a while.

A well balanced sailboat (balanced by correct sail trim for the conditions) will track unattended for many minutes at a time and you do not need to be hanging onto a wheel in the verkrampfte manner that driving a car at speed demands. Nor do you need the intense concentration on what is immediately around you that a car demands, for the simple reason that your sailboat moves at but 1/10 of the speed of a car and with far fewer dangers surrounding you.

Just this morning I came across another thread to do with mooring, and particularly with departing a dock or pontoon when the wind is "holding you on". The sage advice there given was that in most situations, you BACK out! And that is one reason you need to stand rather than sit. That is true whether you have wheel-steering or tiller-steering.

Dismiss any notion you may have that helming any kinda boat is in any way like driving a car :-)!

TP

[Kenomac]

Autopilot >95% of the time.

[hellosailor]

j-
Turn off the computer and GO SAILING.

Either you will conclude we are all crazy and need car seats, or you will understand why you can't learn how to sail from a book. Or YouTube.

And while you are at it, book a ride on a submarine. Those helmsmen do far more than "turn a wheel" like a car. It goes in and out and up and down and they may be doing other things with their feet. More like an aircraft than a car, and you don't just turn the steering wheel in a plane, either. Book an introductory flight lesson, you'll have fun.

And if you can find a sailboat show, they often have introductory sails for free, as well.

[Delancey]

I converted my boat from wheel to tiller steering. 40 foot mono with a balanced spade.

I will spare you all the diatribe on why, however relevant to the topic I will mention that I have a telescoping tiller extension which allows me to stand on the after part of the side deck, outside of the cockpit combing (as well as basically anywhere in the cockpit that suits my fancy).

This puts my head about six feet upwards and outboard of where it would be if I was trapped standing behind a wheel. Eye level at about 10 feet above the water.

I have found this standing position to provide a great vantage point in particular when navigating the thin waters of the Bahamas this past season as well as in ordinary docking or anchoring and is a great aid to my situational awareness in these touchy situations.

No need to have a second person on the bow telling me where to go, I can see it all for myself.