Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Me

I've got an X5 wheel pilot on my Pearson 35. Works very well under power and sailing in light air. Will not handle the very strong force required to turn rudder once the wind and boat speed pipes up. Can't blame the pilot as the boat has an unbalanced barn door rudder that takes extremely high forces on the wheel to steer as boat speed moves above about 4kn. Hope to dump the Wheel Steering and go with the much greater leverage and precise steering control of a tiller at next haul out. The Grand Prix Tiller Pilot control arm for the X5 is reported to have much greater force than the wheel pilot.

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