Newporter steering

[bob mitchell]

          So, in an unusual move, I am starting a discussion as opposed to a bunch of photos and comments in an album of some particular aspect of a Newporter rebuild. I am on the water now, mastless still because the channel of the tennessee river I returned to was too active (dangerous) to attempt stepping my masts. After 42 days of every night and day on the boat on the shoreline, fighting the ceaseless wake of mega yachts and barge propwash threatening to send me aground, and at the very least throwing everything in the boat on the floor, I realized that the Tennessee river where I was was not the same river it was ten years ago when I pulled the boat out of the water for the rebuild. The real estate along the river had been developed, and quite a few people had bought mega yachts that were designed for the ocean. And they would roar up and down the channel creating the maximum wake they could generate. Boy Scouts in overloaded canoes and paddle boarders be damned. In fact I saw one 70 footer criscross the river intimidating and deliberately knocking paddle boarders off their boards , including one who had his dog with him. So, after 42 days on my boat, I gave up and headed down river to my slip, mastless.  My first mate had just cut his fingers on a table saw, so I called my 50 year old son. We have a long tradition  adventuring, and he did not let me down.

      Now to the topic of this discussion: Steering a Newporter under power. I have had 5 fiberglass boats in my life, all 25 to 30 feet, and had mastered the helmsmanship of all of them. But a 40 footer 14 ton was, in my mind something else.  So we cast off,and immediately the steering was not doing what I expected, so I tried somerthing else and got started down a swift river that was going to narrow down and go faster. It worked and we got started, with me full of doubts about being able to handle this boat. Remember that that hull 113 was one of the few Newporters that had hydraulic steering as an alternative to the quadrant if desired, ie you had both - one or the other. I had also built a hard top dodger, for better visability and protection from the elements,  and installed an additional hydraulic station, and done away with the quadrant and original wheel in the cockpit (the quadrant was busted and held together with hose clamps when I bought the boat)).

           Well, the Tennessee River Gorge is not called a GORGE for nothing! The river narrows down and drops. It is beautiful with  the sandstone bluffs above, but a forty foot boat feels pretty damn big. Just glad I did not meet a tug with two or three barges coming up from Guntersville. 

               And in the midst of the gorge, on a significant curve, my hydraulic steering went OUT. 

However, those of you who have followed my rebuild might remember that I included an emergency tiller socket on top of the rudder post. Well, by God, this was the time! Us dumping the deck box to get to the hydraulic steering bypass could only be viewed as something out of a cartoon.

We slid in the emergency tiller and suddenly my helmsmanship was back.  The rest of the day was a joy to have a boat that handled like I expected!  We had a beautiful anchorage that night at the foot of Little Cedar mountain, with wine, steak, and a beautiful clear sky.  About 2am I woke up and started trying to figure out what had happened to the hydraulic steering. It did not take long,  In the original hydraulic steering setup there was a slave cylinder located right in front of the transom, under the deck.

The cylinder rod was connected to the rudder post by a short arm that slipped over and clamped to the post, sort of like a battery terminal clamps on the battery post. That clamp had broken,  but was still. around the post for the month before as it was breaking, accounting for the erratic steering and the me blaming the steering on my incompetence. Upon close examination I could see grinding marks that indicated that the clamp had brokjen before and been poorly welding. So the rest on the trip was with the tiller, and that was just fine with me!!!

           When I got back to town replacing the arm was relatively easy. You might remember, or can read about, my emergency tiller socket. All I had to do was shape and weld a new arm to it, so off the front was the tiller socket and off the back was the arm that the hydraulic cylinder attached to. The main body that dropped over the post was an inch and a quarter transmission to prop shaft coupling that I had ordered to build the emergency tiller socket. (see photos)

            So the last little bit - I had boiled down steering, especially related to docking, down to fiour factors. propwalk, rudder action, wind and current. Pretty basic. But I had been on the river with  a large current, significant wind and a steering system that was unpredictable, so I had not been able to collect the data I needed, especially about one particular point. When backing up when does the rudder action overcome the propwalk? My slip is 50 feet long and about 20 wide. Since ,I have a right hand prop, the propwalk for stern will be to port when in reverse. WHAT I WANTED TO KNOW, CONSIDERING THAT THE RUDDER WILL DO NOTHING IN REVERSE UNTIL SOME STERNWAY IS GENERATED, IS AT WHAT POINT DOES THE RUDDER ACTION IN REVERSE OVERCOME THE PROPWALK OF THE STERN TO PORT. Every boat has its own handling characteristics. 

When I am backing out of my slip I have no choice but for the stern to go to stb, and once out of slip to cut back to port in fwd. So as I am backing out putting the rudder hard to starboard in the beginning should counter the propwalk to port once the sternway builds up.  So I was collecting data about when does the rudder action in reverse overcome the propwalk. I just didn't know. The conclusion I reached was before the boat had cleared the slip the stb rudder action had neutralized the propwalk, and upon clearing the slip with minimum speed, the stern was moving to stb. That was good to know! In talking to Captain Clyde about it his comment was "The Newporter has a powerful rudder"!

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[bob mitchell]

        In a conversation with another Newporter owner, who was instrumental in setting up this site, I mentiioned my early steering problems. In response he told me a story about how once he was going in reverse, and not paying quite enough attention to the wheel. He was caught off gaurd when the rudder got away from him and slammed over, and actually was forced forward completely beyond its usual position. While I can not detail the story well, the point is that you better be aware of the dangers of the Newporters powerful rudder when going in reverse if you lose control of it.

         Even Clyde, when talking about being able to steer well in reverse, mentioned that he had to brace to do it!  And looking back a few months, I realize I really did not appreciate the gigantic forces generated by the rudder when going in reverse.  I remember a couple of instances when I was first testing out the boat in reverse that could easily account for the  initial fracture of the steering arm.  I am sure most of you are well aware of all this, but for those unfamiliar with Newporters, you really don't want to get up a big head of steam in reverse.

[bob mitchell]

 it's now May 2023, and I look back to this discussion with humor. The boat steers just fine when you appreciate the 14 ton displacement and the inertia that comes with it. Short bursts of power, or "bumps" minimize prop walk. Know the pivot point of the boat and appreciate the affect as you come into the slip.. It is a thoughtful boat, and reacts to commands kind of like a Great Pyrenes.