Most boats that I am familiar with are right hand side steering with throttles on the right......

Lots of california/AZ boats seem to have steering on the left... I noticed that some of the offshore boats had left side steering too...

Was this an option, or was there a reason behind it? Just preference???

navigation rules of the road require you to yield to boats approaching your starboard side so the helm is usually there to see to that side easier

makes perfect sense.. thank you!

single engine shaft boats crab sideways to the right with standard prop rotation in reverse. so the wheel was put on the right to make docking easier.

i always thought it was because there were more left handed people on the west coast and more right handed people on the east coast


(Reggie was brilliantly marketing to both)

batting left handed.....

Also, the helm on coast guard boats were on the port side so when they pulled up to boaters with starboard helm ,it was easier to communicate and exchange documents. I had a few Spectras with port side helm and these were popular with the California patrols for that reason back in the 70's 80's..

Left coast people drive on the left side. All other normal people drive on the right.

This is the first I've heard of some of these..

I can tell you the theories I've heard that seem to make sense.

Generally left hand helm boats were jet boats / v-drives / circle race boat style boats (more performance orientated). The helms were placed on the left so when you went into the corner the driver would be looking at the bottom of the boat next to him and he could decide how close he wanted to get to it. Helms were placed on the right of more cruiser style boats to counteract prop torque and to make docking (by yourself) easier.

Not sure if that's accurate or not, but it's what I've always been told and it seems to make sense so I always believed it.

RD <----- West Coast Boater (Parker Strip / Lake Havasu)

I always thought it was because Left = West and Right = East at least thats how it looks from Houston