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A. Haberland's avatar

As the rare sailor that does not drink, I would put the rum in the "sell it" category. Everything else is spot on, though I do love my spar varnish..

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Carolyn & Kees's avatar

Back in the mid 1960s I stood watches on the bridge of a WW2 destroyer. Part of this included time on the helm. After enough practice, I could feel what the ship was doing and counter that motion with the wheel. I became good enough at it that my general quarters and special sea detail assignment was as helmsman on the bridge. Any time we were refueling or replenishing at sea, or leaving/entering port I was steering the ship, so I am familiar enough with wheel steering.

On the other hand, my small sailboat experience has been with tillers, and at this point in life I would have nothing else. I see no need for a wheel until the tiller has to be so long as to be unwieldy in order to turn the rudder.

Last bit of trivia, watch the movie In Harm's Way where you can see the USS Philip (renamed the Cassidy for the movie) storming out of Pearl Harbor with (you guessed it) me steering. And I'm NOT the guy shown behind the wheel in one of the scenes in the flick.

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