MapisM
Well-known member
LOL, you know what, I also gave that a thought at first. But a few years ago, I found a good use for it.
I had some friends onboard who had never been on any boat before, and while returing to the marina after a glorious and uneventful day at sea, I thought to offer them a taste of panic.
After instructing swmbo, I told them that we had an emergency, because the steering wheel didn't respond anymore.
So, I took out the tiller and fitted it in the cockpit.
While reversing in my berth, I kept shouting to swmbo to steer to port or to stbd (either ways being totally useless at very low speed, particularly in reverse), while actually maneuvering with the engines.
It's a shame that I couldn't film their shocked faces...
On a more serious note, I suppose that the removable tiller is there just because the builder has a commercial fishing boats heritage, where boats are mostly single screw.
Otoh, coming to think of it, if frinstance you have a PTO driven steering system, with the pump fitted on just one engine, and that engine becomes disabled for some reason... WNS?
You could chuck overboard the mechanical lock as well!
