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Wheel size has nothing *directly* to do with it.

For any given system, there will be a trade of between steering effort (the force required to actually turn the wheel) and the number of turns the wheel needs to make for a given steering input.

Teleflex mechanical systems are offered in 3, 4.2 and 5 turns lock-to-lock.

A SeaStar hydraulic system with a single cylinder will be about 5 turns with the most common 1.7 cu. in. helm, about 4 turns with the 2.0 helm and closer to 3 turns with the 2.4 helm. The 1.4 SeaStar helm (which I actually think Teleflex has now stopped making) would be about 7 turns and would require very little effort to turn the wheel, butter-smooth some say, but it's slow as hell.

The diameter of the wheel just offers more leverage to input the course correction but takes up more space. Usually, larger wheels, larger vessels. There isn't a Whaler made that needs anything more than 16" wheel and the little ones do fine with 13.5" wheels.