Ullman Steering Bar first drive

Of all the vessels on the Seawork pontoon this year, one that garnered a tremendous amount of attention in pole position on berth V55 was the Ullman Dynamics/ Norsafe demonstrator RIB with Ullman’s new Steering Bar system installed. ‘Maritime Journal’ took this test bed vessel for a quick spin.

The idea of steering a small, high speed vessel with handlebars instead of a wheel is, in itself, not a new concept. Personal watercraft and larger jet tenders have been doing it for years and it proves useful for getting large amounts of helm angle on quickly. However, setting up a larger boat with multiple engines is a harder task. For a start, the ability to get large helm angles quickly at high speed while it will only end in an early bath for a PWC operator- could cause serious problems in a larger, heavier, commercial boat carrying a number of personnel.

Ullman, and its partner on the project; Volvo Penta, has solved this issue, along with some others with a fully ‘drive by wire’ approach. As well as limiting the steering angle above a certain predetermined engine speed, this system also allows intricate control of the twin twist throttles, which can work independently at slow speeds for manoeuvring, then revert to both engines synchronised to one twist grip at higher speeds.

For Ullman, famous in the industry for its shock mitigation seating, one of the big sells of the system is the posture the bar coaches the driver into. It is claimed to provide reduced fatigue, impact or potential injury to the arms. Having only driven this capable deep vee boat on the choppy, but far from offshore, River Test in Southampton, I can’t really comment on the steering bar’s shock mitigation abilities.

Some naysayers at the show could be heard commenting that the bar would be turned or the throttle setting could be undesireably altered when the driver had an impact, such as coming down hard off a wave. Johan Ullman though counters such ideas with the more compelling one that motorcross riders also suffer such impacts, yet their bar steering does not create such issues for them.

Harald Bluetooth, the demonstrator brought to Southampton by Volvo Penta and Norsafe was a Norsafe 850 Magnum capable of speeds close to 50kt. Two 300 hp Volvo Penta D4 engines and DPH drives were controlled with the Ullman system, but it also had wheel steering and dash mounted throttles for comparison. This vessel, unfamiliar to me and equipped with a forward view encroaching bow access system, and a screen top grab bar at exactly my eye height was a good test bed for Ullman’s claims that the system ‘reduces response time, lowers learning threshold, shortens training time, increases precision and skills and reduces risk of mistakes.’

I found this to be more than sales waffle though, as this was the sort of boat that due to all of the above distractions- was one that required constant craning of the head, swiveling of the neck etc. to ensure complete safety in these crowded waters. I found the Steering Bar system to be more than the sum of its parts. Although used to steering high speed boats with a wheel and a throttle that could be on either side and in a variety of positions according to designs of consoles etc., I very quickly adapted to the bar. I was left feeling that particularly in maneuvers like turning around to look over a shoulder for other boats before making a rapid steering input, it was slightly more confidence inspiring and intuitive to have the throttle on a twist grip on the steering bar.