Helm Location

[Laza]

Hi All
I am new to boat design in general and enjoy reading these forums to get a sneak peak at the logic and thought that goes into boat design.

The question I have is regarding Helm/pilothouse locations. I have noticed that sailing yachts typically have the helm located at the stern or center of the yacht. The reasons I suspect are for a dryer ride, and you get to keep out of the sail area. However on power boats the location is almost always centre or 2/3rds forward. Is there a logical reason for this location and what is the impact of moving the helm location foward? I am trying to understand why in passagemeker/trawler type boats the location isnt right near the bow?

[Eric Sponberg]

Laza,
The most common reason for helm midship or aft on a sailboat is so that you can readily keep the rig in sight while navigating. You have to be looking at the setting of the sails as well as the horizon and surrounding traffic, and to look up and/or forward is easier than always looking back. It is as simple as that.

[tom28571]

As Eric said for sailboats. Steering a powerboat from far forward leads to oversteering since the helm position is insensitive to the degree of turn and the boat wanders.

[Laza]

Tom
I am curious, I have seen fishing boats that require a large working deck have the helm location located within the first 1/4 of the total length of the boat. I know that all designs are essentially a compromise however if the Helm location being so far forward creates oversteer why would Someone build a boat in that configuration.

Also I was wondering about the ride characteristics of having the helm forward. Would the ride be rougher or wetter than one would normally expect? Is that due the extra weight. Also how would hull form (planning, displacement etc) be affected with a forward helm vs a centre or rear helm?
Thanks in advance for your response.

[tom28571]

A good pilot can handle the oversteering tendency. If you are far forward and looking forward when steering, the stern can move sideways a lot while the bow appears to move very little. That is what I meant by oversteer. The boat doesn't do anything different, it just looks different to the pilot.

The ride is definitely rougher forward since the bow pitches far more than the stern and least of all near the CB/CG.

There are a lot of reasons for locating the helm in various places, like visibility, safety, opening up a work area, steering from a work area (lobster or crab boats) or comfort. Depends on which is most important to the user.