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Old 11-28-2010, 11:42 AM   #4
Marin
Scraping Paint
 
City: -
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 13,745
Upper vs Lower Helm

Neither my wife nor I like the sight picture from driving from the flying bridge. We both feel too "removed" from the boat. I find I can much better judge the boat's exact position in close-in maneuvering and docking from the lower helm. The lower helm in older GBs is almost on the centerline of the boat so we find it as easy to judge our distance from the port side as the starboard side. On later GBs they moved the helm more to starboard.

I also want to be able to hear, feel, and smell what's going on in the engine room and the electronics and electrical panels. I'm of the school that gauges and alarms are there to tell you that the component they are monitoring has just failed. Sort of like how a radio is in a circuit to fail first and thus protect the fuse I can't monitor the engines the way I want to from up above.

We averted an electrical fire in an old radio component in our boat because we were at the lower helm. We smelled that "hot electric" smell and my wife tracked it down to the loud-hailer, which was on and working, but unbeknown to us was so hot inside it was rapidly melting the case and starting to scorch the wood next to it. Had we been up top, we never would have known this was happening.

The flying bridge has a great view--- it's only advantage in our opinion with regards to running the boat itself is that in our waters it gives you a better picture of all the crap in the water around you and so makes it easier to avoid it. But other than sightseeing we have no use for the flying bridge at all.

Finally, we do ninety percent of our boating with just the two of us on board. If the person on deck handling lines or whatever needs a hand in a hurry, getting down from the flying bridge can take too long. From the lower helm it's just a matter of stepping out the door beside us.

But this is just us. We know powerboaters who cannot maneuver their boat effectively at all from down below. They have to be as high as possible so they can look down on the boat and judge its position from above, and they will go up and dock from the upper helm even in a driving rainstorm in winter.

The absolute best boat configuration in our opinions is a pilothouse with a full walkaround deck. Fleming, Krogen, deFever, etc. A pilothouse with good visibility all round. This gives you the advantage of additional height but you are still inside where you can hear, feel, and smell what's going on with the boat's systems, and on a properly designed one you have immediate access to the main deck.

Bottom line is that up top or down below, there is no right or wrong answer, only what works best for you.



-- Edited by Marin on Sunday 28th of November 2010 01:46:11 PM
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