How to de-link the steering ?

[greyfisherman]

Hello to everyone my first post.

Elderly sailor here who has a chum (also elderly) who bought last year a rather nice Mascot of about 9mtrs - the one with the aft cabin.

Now my chum is not best on the internet so has asked me to ask you the following.

He loves the boat, great for keeping warm and dry in inclement weather he says he hasn't worn his oilies since he bought the boat but there is one thing he'd like (in his words) to improve.

The interior and exterior steering is linked so when you turn the interior wheel the tiller outside moves and vice versa - he would like to lighten the effort needed to apply to the tiller by finding a way to delink the tiller from the wheel.

Not a permanent thing but some kind of "lever/pull/push" connection so when he wanted to he could easily disconnect the tiller from the wheel mechanism and steer with tiller.

He understands that some LM's had such a device can anyone confirm and if anyone knows if it could be retrofitted to a Mascot.

Thanks in anticipation.

[Sula]

Welcome to the forum!

I would think (but don't know) that the Mascot would already have such a device. If it does not it would be relatively simple engineering to build a similar device, assuming you have access to the rudder post in way of its connection to the wheel.

Have a look under the aft deck at the rudder post. How is the wheel steering connected to it?  Is there a rigid arm attached to the post with another post, but this time hinged, above it which is dropped over the fixed arm to engage with it by means of an inverted angular 'U' which keeps one arm following the other? This is the arrangement on my LM27.

One of the two arms is fixed to the rudder post (and indirectly the tiller), the other rotates around the rudder post but is connected to cable (or whatever) from the wheel (I can't remember just now which is arm is fixed to which on the LM27).

Disconnecting the wheel steering from the rudder and tiller on the LM27 is just a simple matter of lifting the hinged arm off the fixed arm, the rudder and tiller can then rotate independently of the wheel. Reconnecting them is simply a matter of lining up the two arms again, and dropping the hinged arm over the fixed arm. 

Mind your fingers if the boat is being steered while you are doing the disconnecting or reconnecting!

It would all be much clearer for you if someone were able to post a picture of the usual LM linkage. Unfortunately this would currently have to be an image hosted elsewhere and linked to in a post, until we succeed in resolving the current image capacity problems preventing of further images being posted directly.

(There might possibly already be such an image in an old post on the site, but I don't currently have the time to search for it.)

[Brian & Glenda]

You may find more information and some images of the wheel disconnect on my LM32, which is as described by Sula, in the images in the following posts.

lmowners.proboards.com/thread/649/lm32-wheel-disconnect

lmowners.proboards.com/thread/572/wheel-quadrant-autohelm


Brian.

[greyfisherman]

Thank you Brian & Glenda and Sula, most useful. I will investigate further when next at chums boat.

Looking at the photo's of the stern gear, linkages, wheel disconnect mechanism etc it doesn't look anything like that.

From what I remember attached to the rudder post is an arm which at it's extremity had a hole - through which passed a bolted pin.

On the bottom of the pin was a captivated rotating ball inside a sleeve, couldn't actually see the ball but what else would it be to make it work.

The sleeve was essentially an extension of the flexible mechanism which went to the interior wheel. It has a spring between the sleeve and the mechanism presumably to keep the sleeve and rotating ball tight.

Before the mechanism dissapears forward to the wheelhouse it passes through what looks like a floating ball inside a circular bracket which allows the cable ? mechanism ? to adjust it's attitude as the arm on the rudder post moves through it's working arc.

The tiller is fixed directly to the top of the rudder post.

Hope that helps as a description any further advice very welcome.

[Brian & Glenda]

Yes but: My photos are a bit complicated in that the rudder also has a Raymarine Autohelm attached, which is what the photos were posted to illustrate ...

However: in the photos you can see (although not particularly clearly) the upside down U shaped channel that slides down over both an upper arm that is attached to the rudder stock and moves with the wheel, and a lower arm that is also attached to the rudder stock and moves with the tiller.  When the inverted U channel is in the down position, it holds the two arms together and the wheel rotates when the tiller is moved.  When the inverted channel is raised, the two arms are no longer linked, and the wheel is disconnected.  The wire on the forward side of the rudder stock that lifts the U shaped channel off the arm separating the two arms, is also visible. 

Today I took some more pictures and will post same when the ability to restore same is restored.

B

[ganzanders]

Here are two pictures of the delinking mechanism on my LM32:

www.segeln-forum.de/thread/81769-lm-27/?postID=2344447#post2344447