Electric Outboard Steering | Salt Water Sportsman

In case you’ve been round saltwater fishing boats so long as me, you’ll bear in mind when hydraulic steering methods for outboards first turned standard within the early Eighties. My first one was on a 1986 21-foot center-console, and it ­vastly eased the trouble to steer my 200 hp outboard versus cable steering.

At the moment, an identical revolution is going down within the type of electrical steering methods for outboards. With some methods already available on the market as we speak, electrical steering might properly displace hydraulic methods sooner or later as the only option for outboard management. 

That’s as a result of electrical steering affords many new benefits for boating anglers, not the least of which is eliminating the necessity for hydraulic fluid, which may create a large number and pollute waters if a steering hose, helm, actuator or different element springs a leak. 

In a lot the identical method hydraulic steering offers simpler steering than mechanical-cable methods, electrical methods additional cut back the trouble wanted to show the steering wheel. It’s fingertip-­simple; really easy that the majority methods allow particular system programming to regulate the wheel resistance and lock-to-lock turning ratio to assist stop turns which are too sharp at velocity. 

Decreased rigging muddle is yet one more benefit of electrical steering as a result of there aren’t any hydraulic hoses or stiff steering cables to route individually from the helm to the strict and connect with the engine outdoors the primary rigging tube. With the built-in electrical steering methods on the massive Mercury and Yamaha outboards, for instance, there is only one electrical cable, and it’s contained inside the primary rigging tube, hidden inside with the primary engine harness and gas line—tremendous clear.

Learn Subsequent: Digital Electrical Steering for Outboards

An electrical steering system additionally enhances integration with ancillary outboard management methods, together with joystick steering and autopilot capabilities. This is likely one of the huge the explanation why Mercury and Yamaha have integrated electrical steering into their giant outboards as a result of they will extra merely and ­immediately community these methods versus utilizing an electrohydraulic power-assist-steering setup.

Electrical steering may be added to an present outboard of nearly any model because of the Dometic Optimus outboard electrical steering actuator. This all-electric system is definitely put in by a professional seller, and contains speed-sensitive lock-to-lock turns to assist guarantee protected steering. It additionally affords built-in performance with Dometic’s ancillary outboard management methods, together with the SeaWays autopilot, Optimus 360 joystick management, and SeaStation GPS ­digital anchoring system. 

Dometic additionally affords the SeaStar Xtreme Energy Help (XPA) electrical power-­help system for outboards utilizing present SeaStar rack or ­rotary cable steering. It installs in lower than an hour and leads to the identical fingertip ease as different electrical steering methods, but doesn’t improve the load on a mechanical helm or cable. XPA fills a distinct segment for smaller outboards within the boating market from 90 to 200 hp that might not be appropriate for an all-­electrical steering system.  

With all of those rising electric-outboard steering methods, a query arises: Why now? What main know-how is driving these steering methods of the long run? The reply is the event and miniaturization of high-speed, high-torque, environment friendly brushless DC electrical motors. To present you an thought of how compact these new-age motors have develop into, the brushless motor within the Dometic all-electric actuator measures simply 4-by-2 inches. 

A few of this know-how was borrowed from the automotive trade, however Dometic and others have spent appreciable R&D to engineer and construct methods particularly to function reliably and safely amid the pains of the marine atmosphere whereas dealing with the heavy steering masses generated by huge, ­high-horsepower outboards of as we speak and ­tomorrow.