Patrick,

I think your diagnosis of the geometry issue is correct.  On my boat, the distance from link attachment point to pivot point is about the same for both rudder and outboard (roughly 14" I guesstimated).  This way, the rudder and outboard are always pointed in about the same direction.

I also noticed that my outboard has stops that prevent it from pivoting more than about 45 degrees.

In addition to trying to figure out a way to move the outboard attachment point aft, you could perhaps shift the rudder attachment point forward.

Peter Nyberg
Coventry, CT
s/v Silverheels (1988/2016)



[ Sent From rhodes22.net ]


motor-tiller.JPG

> On 2024-06-06, at 13:29:01 EDT, Patrick Riley wrote:
>
> On this new to me 89 recycled 2012 I have issues with the tiller link.  On my 
> first boat I made a link that worked pretty well.  I recall at higher speed it 
> wanted to just go straight (which was fine). 
> 
> This one is really squirrelly.  If you start to turn it seems unstable and just 
> wants to go full into a hard turn.  From these pics. at center, turned max port, 
> and max starboard - you can see that the motor is turning much faster than the 
> rudder and it actually stops the rudder from turning as much as I would like to 
> cruise into dock.  It also kind of binds up as the max angle resists turning 
> back from the stops. 
> 
> On my home built I tried to get the distance from the rudder rotation point to 
> the connecting bar, and the distance from the motor rotation point to the attach 
> point on it to be about the same radius.  In this GB setup, the rudder pin to 
> connection pivot point  is about 16 inches whereas on the motor it is only about 
> 5 inches.  I think this is the problem and I probably need to build an extension 
> to move the attach point on the motor top out further behind it. 
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> I sort of need this linkage for maneuvering in shallow water where my rudder 
> might get kicked up.  If I leave the motor straight I could have prop. impact. 
> 
> Patrick