Sheet to tiller self steering???

Lots of people use it. Secret is sail trim and adjusting your compensating lines to balance the loads on the tiller. Most boats can be made to sail to windward on their own with a little assistance from tiller lines. However, that is the techniques limitation. The further you sail off the wind the less easy it is to balance the boat, particularly inless than steady wind conditions.

No substitute for a tiller pilot, but interesting in a limited way.
 
played with it

sailorman said:
ask on the Jester forum, they are past masters of it
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Hi
I played around with it with some success.
As already stated it works best close hauled.
I had several bungey hooks that allowed me to adjust the tension, with the jib sheet pulling the tiller the other way.
This was on a 23 foot lifting keel snapdragon.
It was fun, but I dont miss it and love my antique tiller pilot.

S
 
Depending on the boat it can work quite well. There are two basic scenarios. The first is going to windward. You have to have a boat with a mainsheet going to the cockpit and sheeted towards the end of the boom. Clove hitch a line to a fall in the mainsheet and lead it to a block on the leeward side of the cockpit and thence to a clove hitch on the tiller. A suitably powerful bungy is needed to pull the tiller up to windward. You cannot sheet the mainsheet in very tightly, there has to be enough play so that if the boat luffs the bungy is able to move the tiller to windward and make the boat bear away. If it bears away too far the main fills more effectively, straightens the sheet and pulls the tiller to leeward. In practice it is usually better just to sheet the sails as normal so that the boat is well balanced and find a position to lock the tiller slightly to windward. This works well until the wind strength changes.

Off the wind you need to set up the jib/genoa sheet so that it has a long run aft. Usually, by taking it back to a spinnaker block and then forward to the winch. Tie a clove hitch to the genoa sheet between the fairlead block and the spinnaker block and run the line across the cockpit to a block on the windward side of the cockpit and thence to the tiller. In this case the bungy is set up to pull the tiller to leeward. The tiller line has to be set up so that it is deflecting the genoa sheet when balancing the pull of the bungy. Fine tuning can be done by sliding the clove hitch along the genoa sheet. Oversheet the genoa slightly so that if the boat bears away the sail loses power and the bungy cause her to luff. If she luffs the genoa fills more powerfully as the sheeting angle becomes more efficient. That tends to cause the boat to luff more but it also straightens the genoa sheet which causes the cross cockpit line to pull the tiller to windward.

Setting the system up and getting the balance correct for the first time can take a long while but once you know the rough settings and have the right lengths of rope and correct strength of bungy it doesn’t take too long. If you are going to do it frequently it pays to have cleats on the tiller and a selection of bungies to cater for different wind strengths. Its never as effective as an autohelm but it is very satisfying when you get it right and it saves the battery. On one occasion I even got it to work flying a spinnaker for 20 miles by setting up a No 4 jib inside the spinnaker and using that to act as the steering sail.
 
Paul1972stevens said:
Has anyone used it with any success??? If so tell me more tips to get it going well.
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There's a very good section on setting up this system in Andrew Evans' single handed sailing tips, available as a free download PDF book. The book is worth getting anyway, as it is full of really valuable experience laid out for all, in the spirit of sharing.
 
PeterR has the basics right, but note that shockcord is not the ideal material for the bungee - natural rubber strip as is used by physiotherapists is much better as it has a more linear stretch response. To windward sheet to tiller should steer near-perfectly on most older boats, the further offwind you go the worse you get. Though even a very S-shaped wake downwind is still getting you in roughly the right direction rather than being hove to to give time to cook, do chartwork, etc.

No sheet to tiller setup is likely to work well for long on a modern AWB style boat that will round up if overpressed.
 
jwilson said:
PeterR has the basics right, but note that shockcord is not the ideal material for the bungee - natural rubber strip as is used by physiotherapists is much better as it has a more linear stretch response. To windward sheet to tiller should steer near-perfectly on most older boats, the further offwind you go the worse you get. Though even a very S-shaped wake downwind is still getting you in roughly the right direction rather than being hove to to give time to cook, do chartwork, etc.

No sheet to tiller setup is likely to work well for long on a modern AWB style boat that will round up if overpressed.
Click to expand...

Bungee cord works quite well on small boats and is easier to adjust. I did it by making up tent peg adjusters which could be slid the along the cord to get the required tension. On bigger boats with heavier helms a set of bicycle inner tubes is more effective. Just add more inner tubes to get the desired pull. Its true that in any more than moderate winds the increased pressure on the main will override any commands from the sheet to tiller system. However, if you are prepared to reef your main more than you normally would you can keep the system working until the sea state becomes too rough for it to cope with.
 
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