Can a tiller pilot pivot pin be bracket-mounted on the side of the tiller?

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fredrussell

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...or does it have to be underneath on the centre line? The way I understand it, a TP works in the following way: you hit the ‘auto’ button and at that point it makes a note to itself of your heading. When the boat moves off that heading it moves the ram to compensate until original heading is reached. So does it matter where the pivot pin is on tiller?

I ask as I have an outboard in a well and with the outboard ‘up’ for sailing it’s fouling the TP bracket under tiller.
 
Why should it? As you say it reponds to the course set, it does not know how wide your cockpit is or where the tiller is. ]f your tiller is very wide you may have to move the outside end fitting to maintain full movement and of course the tiller bracket fixing will need to be adequate.
 
fredrussell said:
...or does it have to be underneath on the centre line? The way I understand it, a TP works in the following way: you hit the ‘auto’ button and at that point it makes a note to itself of your heading. When the boat moves off that heading it moves the ram to compensate until original heading is reached. So does it matter where the pivot pin is on tiller?

I ask as I have an outboard in a well and with the outboard ‘up’ for sailing it’s fouling the TP bracket under tiller.
Click to expand...

You certainly can mount the pin on a bracket so it is to the side of the tiller. That is what I have.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
Obvs yes, but two points.

1. Make sure you do it in a way that can easily be lifted off in case of cock-up. I learned this the hard way. My unconventional mount made it near impossible to disengage the pilot when the tiller was hard over.
2. The distance from the pivot (centre of pintles) to the pin is specified. It won't work very well if you deviate significantly from this.
 
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