Re: why tiller motor are leaf handel.
Read the following and it should make sense. You always steer from the right or starboard side of the boat. So, a centerlined motor would need to be steered with your left hand:
The origin of the term comes from old boating practices. Before ships had rudders on their centerline, they were steered by use of a specialized oar. This oar was held by an oarsman located in the stern (back) of the ship. However, like most of the rest of society, there were many more right-handed sailors than left-handed sailors. This meant that the steering oar (which had been broadened to provide better control) used to be affixed to the right side of the ship. The word starboard comes from Old English steorbord, literally meaning the side on which the ship is steered, descendant from the Old Norse words st?ri meaning ?rudder? (from the verb st?ra, literally ?being at the helm?, ?having a hand in?) and bor? meaning etymologically ?board?, then the ?side of a ship?.
Similarly, the term for the left side of the boat, port or larboard, is derived from the practice of sailors mooring on the left side (i.e., the larboard or loading side) as to prevent the steering boards from being crushed. Because the words larboard and starboard sounded too similar to be easily distinguished, larboard was changed to port.
Starboard - right
Port - left
