Tiller Lock

[wikakaru]

I never had an acceptable way to secure the tiller on Arietta so that I could move around the boat and work while single-handing. Arietta is a simple, small boat with no autopilot or wind vane. Arietta's previous owner used a bungee cord tied with a clove hitch around the tiller with the bungee hooks clipped to a pair of safety harness pad-eyes in the cockpit. I kept that method until now because I didn't want to drill any holes in the tiller or coamings for an off-the-shelf tiller tamer system. The bungee was never very adjustable, and the stretch meant that the tiller always moved the wrong way as the wind speed changed. Then I came across one of John Stone's blog entries where he talked about using a prusik hitch to tie the tiller to a transverse static line. Brilliant!

A prusik hitch connecting the tiller and a transverse static line

DSC_5453.JPG (190.53 KiB) Viewed 352 times

(You can see the old bungee still attached but hanging loose in the photo above.)

"Look, Ma! No hands!"

IMG_7197.JPG (176.68 KiB) Viewed 352 times

A big shout out to John Stone for turning me on to this technique!

Smooth sailing,

Jim

[jbenagh]

Nice! Simple and it works. The best combo.
I did something similar on my CD25 but this looks much neater and more reliable.
Jeff

[John Stone]

I never had an acceptable way to secure the tiller on Arietta so that I could move around the boat and work while single-handing. Arietta is a simple, small boat with no autopilot or wind vane. Arietta's previous owner used a bungee cord tied with a clove hitch around the tiller with the bungee hooks clipped to a pair of safety harness pad-eyes in the cockpit. I kept that method until now because I didn't want to drill any holes in the tiller or coamings for an off-the-shelf tiller tamer system. The bungee was never very adjustable, and the stretch meant that the tiller always moved the wrong way as the wind speed changed. Then I came across one of John Stone's blog entries where he talked about using a prusik hitch to tie the tiller to a transverse static line. Brilliant!

DSC_5453.JPG

(You can see the old bungee still attached but hanging loose in the photo above.)

IMG_7197.JPG

A big shout out to John Stone for turning me on to this technique!

Smooth sailing,

Jim

Awe shucks. Glad I got to a chance to contribute an idea useful to you. I like your quick release. Good set up. Every bit as good and a lot easier on the eye than a tiller tamer. I bet you could make this work with shock cord too. Lots of room for experimentation.

One thing I would mention, and you may be happy with how you have it set up, is generally the line with the prusick is smaller diameter than the line it attaches to so it wraps tight around the transverse line. For example if the transverse line is 3/8" the prusik line would probably be 3/16" diameter. I actually use 1/8" double braid cord or 3/16" double braid on the tiller. When climbing the mast I use a 1/4"-5/16" double braid line with a prusik around a spare 3/8" halyard and secured to my climbing harness with a locking snaplink as my safety line. Because the line is doubled the breaking strength is nearly doubled. I keep it short though to reduce shock loading if I fall.

[wikakaru]

Awe shucks. Glad I got to a chance to contribute an idea useful to you. I like your quick release. Good set up. Every bit as good and a lot easier on the eye than a tiller tamer. I bet you could make this work with shock cord too. Lots of room for experimentation.

One thing I would mention, and you may be happy with how you have it set up, is generally the line with the prusick is smaller diameter than the line it attaches to so it wraps tight around the transverse line. For example if the transverse line is 3/8" the prusik line would probably be 3/16" diameter. I actually use 1/8" double braid cord or 3/16" double braid on the tiller. When climbing the mast I use a 1/4"-5/16" double braid line with a prusik around a spare 3/8" halyard and secured to my climbing harness with a locking snaplink as my safety line. Because the line is doubled the breaking strength is nearly doubled. I keep it short though to reduce shock loading if I fall.

After my experience with the clove-hitch bungee I don't think a shock cord would be as good as polyester. The problem I have with shock cord is that in a wind gust the weather helm increases and the tiller gets pulled to leeward, pointing the boat up into the wind too far and causing the sails to flog. This setup doesn't stretch and so doesn't exhibit that behavior--the boat tracks nice and straight as long as the wind strength doesn't change.

I agree that the static line should ideally be of larger diameter. The setup I photographed was with some spare bits of 1/4" line I had laying around, one an old sail tie, and one I use to keep the boom from swinging when the boat sits on her mooring. Not shown in the photo are a pair of really small (maybe 2") cleats on the outboard side of each coaming that the static line is attached to. Some previous owner put them there and I was never sure what they were intended for--perhaps roller furling or a jib downhaul or something. They are mounted low on the coaming, so it seems like they were intended for something coming from the foredeck, not for something riding over the coaming top like I am using them for. They work fine for 1/4" line, but anything larger than that is a problem. The other problem with this setup is that the static line will eventually wear through the Cetol on top of the coaming. A better solution would be a second pair of Spartan cleats just like the ones for the jib sheets that have the right-angle coaming through-bolt arrangement. Then I could use a larger diameter static line and also have no chafe on the coaming tops. But as much as I hate to put holes in any part of the boat, I will probably just live with it the way it is.

I could switch to 1/8" line for the prusik hitch and keep 1/4" for the static line so they would be of different diameter. That would also make tying the double-slip-square-knot (aka "bow") around the tiller easier. Maybe that's the best solution.

--Jim

[John Stone]

You could add a leather sleeve around the line or router out a couple inch length of the top of the coamings on each side where the line crosses and install flush bronze strip or even a piece of flush bare teak. I like the bronze Spartan cleats but can't use those on my coaming without fabricating a support bracket.

I capped the coamings with bare teak and it has made a huge difference in the durability of the varnish.