On 3/18/2015 7:28 PM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 3/18/15 6:10 PM, Tim wrote:
Greg's thread made me think about my old Chris-craft Cavalier and how
it was set up. It had solid shaft propulsion. And looking from the
back, it had the rudder just left of the prop. I wonder why it was set
that way instead of being directly behind the propeller instead of
offset the way it was. Also I wonder why only one prop instead of two.
It was a bugger to back out of a slip .

When underway everything was fine and would steer well regardless of
speed or direction.
Any ideas?


Offset rudder. First time I saw that was in the late 1950s. It wasn't
uncommon on inboard runabouts that "wandered" into my dad's shop.


I think even in larger, twin engined boats with rudders, the rudder is
not necessarily dead center to the prop. It's usually offset, not by
much, but is not perfectly centered. I remember this on the Egg Harbor
I had. When it was being launched but still on land I was standing
behind it and noticed that the rudders where not perfectly in line with
the center hub of the props. They were offset by about an inch, one in
one direction, the other opposite.