Surgical Tubing for Sheet-2-Tiller steering

[eebygum]

I’m looking to setup a fallback sheet-2-tiller system on my SHE 32C and I’ve read that Surgical Latex tubing works best (compared to bungee cord).

I’ve found some on Fleebay and it comes in OD from 4.5mm to 17mm…. Anybody got any practical experience of whatsize is best to go for ?

 

[jamie N]

I've never used it, but 4.5mm seems very thin, and would thus require multiple 'strands', which in turn makes it more variable!
I use bungee for this as it's so replacable.
Edit: Totally unhelpful answer, good luck!!

 

[eebygum]

I've never used it, but 4.5mm seems very thin, and would thus require multiple 'strands', which in turn makes it more variable!
I use bungee for this as it's so replacable.
Edit: Totally unhelpful answer, good luck!!

Totally unhelpful but confirms my decision to use surgical tubing ??

 

[LadyInBed]

If you wanted to go technical, you could attach some fishermans / luggage scales to your tiller to see how much force is exerted under different conditions to give you some idea of the strength of tube you need.

 

[Tranona]

Bungee cord is generally satisfactory in the short term as it is cheap nd easy to use. Its downsides are that the stretch is non linear and changes over time. Hence the attraction of latex tubing which is linear and longer lasting.

Suspect, however you will have to experiment as there does not seem to be any practical method of calculating loads in advance. Perhaps try with bungee first to find out whether the principle will work on your boat. You will then have an idea how much "stretch" you need.

 

[garymalmgren]

I used 10-12 mm. Actually, it is exercise stretch tube (choice of colours) from the $1 shop.
Works fine.

 

[jamie N]

I'm probably stating the obvious here, but the greatest effect for me, comes from balancing the rig/tiller/boat, getting it consistently and predictably close to a neutral helm.
Slightly contrary to Tranona, I've had a bungee cord 'doing' this for several seasons without a noticable change; very pleasing for my natural meanness!