Seacraft History / Trivia Question...
 

So I have always wondered why the wheel / throttles on our boats are bass akwards for us normal "right handed" people? Was this some remnant of Seacraft's racing background with a separate driver / throttle man? Is Bill Potter left handed? Was the console layout outsourced to some Alien race?

Anyone know the answer?

as a leftie, I never noticed anything amiss.

LoL true, i'm a righty and the throttle being on the left just makes it weird for me. Like driving a rhd car

I'll bet Carl M. or Bill Potter was left handed. Otherwise it make no sense and is ass backwards as stated above. If I had a CC I would have to reverse it... too weird.

My Flying Machine...

I read somewhere (maybe Carla wrote about it) that Carl done this to balance the boat out due to countering the motor torque. As the single standard rotation motor torques the hull, It lifts the right side up and the weight of the driver on the right hand side of the console will balance it out as that side raises. Drivers weight helps bring it down. If you put the wheel all the way right it makes u stand to that side. That causes no room for the throttles but to go left of the wheel. That's why the batteries were mounted on that side too. If the wheel was on the left like a car it would make the roll in the motor torque worse. Another way Carl tried to make his hull balanced as possible.

I two would reverse them. All the center consoles i have had steering on left throttle on right side!!! And the weird thing about that is i am left handed. Its all in what you get used to

screws me up every time I put it on the trailer!...and good question!!!!

The only reason I could see is that if you put the wheel on the left and the throttles on the right then the driver is standing in the middle of the console and there is no room for someone to stand, sit beside you. With the wheel on the right then there is room for two to be behind the windshield. That is why I left it like that on the first re-do. This time around I'm switching them.

I think he flew fighters in WW II. Stick right, throttle & trim left. I think that might be where "My Flying Machine" came from.

Throttle
 

Perhaps they liked to fish for marlins and it would be easier to back down on the fish with this configuration

Often have wondered myself why the throttle is on the left. The first thing I changed on my boat.

Funny thing is about the wheel is that it actually works out well for me having the wheel on the starboard side as this allows my "strong" hand (right) to do the steering since the inboard requires a lot of wheel spinning during docking.

Don't ask me, when they came from the factory the wheel was in the middle and the rigger cut the throttle in - I have seen quite a few on the left side but all mine and everyone that left our dealership here in Tampa was always on the right - always seemed retarded to me and I would have to change it

With over 13,000 hours, Moesly has flown virtually everything in the Army Air Corps WWII inventory! However his book, "A Pilots Story", relates that most of his time was in the C-54 (DC-4) 4 engine transport. In a multi-engine transport, the throttles would have been on either the right OR left depending on whether you were the pilot or co-pilot!

Mine is a 1972 23 with original console, helm center, throttle to starboard