Lashing the tiller

[Gordonmc]

No, not underway.
My problem is the constant movement of the rudder as the boat sits on the mooring and its the only area of concern I have about leaving her in the water over winter.
The rudder is a big lump of mahogany and obviously as the boat yaws in the wind and tide there is a fair amount of force applied to the stock and rudder.
I have been lashing the tiller but with continual movement the lashings eventually come undone. After the hogmanay storm I found the grub screws securing the tiller head to the rudder stock had come loose.
The tiller came off for varnishing and better inspection of the head.
If I leave the tiller off there will be wear on the pintles from an unrestrained rudder, but is that preferable to having the tiller bashing itself to bits or stress fracturing the head?

What do you advise?

 

[fluffc]

Are there any play in the pintles, which allows the rudder to move a bit, even when lashed. This moving about creates wear, and more moving about and more wear and so on.

 

[Poignard]

I would try using shock cord instead of rope, it will give a little instead of working loose. If it doesn't work you can always use the shock cord for some other purpose.

Another thing I would try is lashing the tiller to one side a bit.

Yet one more idea comes from Thames barges, I think they used to have a rope attached to the after edge of the rudder which was brought inboard and tensioned so as to take up the backlash in the steering gear. Maybe not a bad idea to have a hole in the after end of the rudder blade in case you ever break the tiller; then you can attach temporary steering lines to it!

 

[cliffordpope]

That's it - lash the rudder, not the tiller.

 

[jimi]

I always lash the tiller when the little beggar ain't ploughing fast enough

 

[Stocky_Helm]

I'll have to think about lashing the tiler after the job he did in my kitchen