Helm

Helms are a core boat part used in shipbuilding in the Sailing skill. Players can use the "navigate" option of the helm to control the ship they're on, which changes the control scheme from click-pathing to move the player, to a heading selector which changes the boat's travel direction. An "escape" option is also present on the helm, which allows players to evacuate the boat and return to their docked port.

There are helms of each smithable metal that are crafted with bars, as well as a dragon helm that requires dragon metal sheets to make. Helms require specific Sailing and Construction levels to create, and can be attached to any tier of boat. They are built at the Shipyard by interacting with the boat schematics boards.

When travelling through rapids, a boat with a strong enough helm will gain a speed boost, while weaker helms will cause the boat to take damage. Gentle rapids require at least an iron helm, strong rapids a mithril helm, and powerful rapids a rune helm. Adamant helms and higher are also immune to tangled kelp.

Using the Escape Helm function while on board of a ship, makes you abandon ship. If doing this on your own boat, it will have to be recovered from a port. Cargo stored in the ship's hold, as well as any items dropped on board, will be lost.

Rafts, skiffs, and sloops all have slightly different materials used for their helms, but each tier follows the same basic formula. Across all shipbuilding, each kind of log always corresponds to a particular kind of nail. Regular logs correspond to bronze nails, up to rosewood logs with dragon nails.

Stat wise, the Rapid and Tangled Kelp resistances provided by the Helm at a specific tier is the same for raft, skiff and sloop.

v t e Shipbuilding
Boats	Raft Skiff Sloop
Core boat parts	Hulls Wooden Oak Teak Mahogany Camphor Ironwood Rosewood Helms Bronze Iron Steel Mithril Adamant Rune Dragon Mast and sails Wooden Oak Teak Mahogany Camphor Ironwood Rosewood Keels Bronze Iron Steel Mithril Adamant Rune Dragon Other Flags Storm chaser Swamp cruiser Crystal glider Trims No trim Shark Inky Barracuda Salvor Guthix Saradomin Zamorak Armadyl Merchant Angler Sandy Eternal brazier Sail patterns Plain Black Blue Green Pink Purple Red Yellow
Facilities	Cargo holds Basic Oak Teak Mahogany Camphor Ironwood Rosewood Cannons Bronze Iron Steel Mithril Adamant Rune Dragon Salvaging hooks Bronze Iron Steel Mithril Adamant Rune Dragon Trawling net Rope trawling net Linen trawling net Hemp trawling net Cotton trawling net Other Range Keg Anchor Innoculation Station Salvaging Station Wind catcher Teleport focus Chum station Advanced chum station Fathom stone Crystal extractor Greater teleport focus Gale catcher Chum spreader Fathom pearl Ballistic attractor Bosun's workbench
Shipwrights	Junior Jim Sam Sally Sophie Steve Sarah Sennia Silas Seth Spencer Sigrun Soraya Scott Sylvia Sornik Silrien
Port wizards	Perrie Peter Petra
Items	Boat bottle Facility bottle Keel parts Bronze Iron Steel Mithril Adamant Rune Dragon Large keel parts Bronze Iron Steel Mithril Adamant Rune Dragon Hull parts Wooden Oak Teak Mahogany Camphor Ironwood Rosewood Large hull parts Wooden Oak Teak Mahogany Camphor Ironwood Rosewood Paint Angler's Armadylean Barracuda Guthixian Inky Merchant's Salvor's Sandy Saradominist Shark Zamorakian