Tiller pilot used on a wheel

[Guest]

Has anyone experience with a tiller pilot used on a wheel steered boat. I hope I can use one for easy conditions like head to wind when single handed and calm motoring. I would accept that it couldnt cope with strong quartering weather because the range of rudder angle achieved will be limited.

 

[Guest]

About the only way I would do that is on a calm day while motoring in flat seas. Really can't see it being safely done under sail in even light to moderate seas. I would think it better to invest in a proper wheel steered unit. Maybe you could find someone to trade with.

Reality is the cause of all stress!!

 

[Athene V30]

Quite a few years ago (20 +) the skipper I sailed with used a tiller pilot on the wheel. He had a smaller ring with holes drilled through it lashed to the wheel, the tiller pilot at right angles to the wheel and it worked!

Don't know where he got the smaller ring from, he may have made it.

It handled at Westerly Pentland (31') under motor and when motor sailing.

 

[castaway]

I've looked at this idea my self as my old Pinta autopilot is intermitent. Even the cheapest wheelsteering pilot is going to be £4-500 with a direct steering coming in a £1500.

I think that for the sort of thing you are expecting it would work fine and cost you £20 quid from a boat jumble and a bit of ingenuity.

If you do this I'd be quite interested how you get on.

Regds Nick

 

[chippie]

I wonder if it would be feasible to fit it to the quadrant on the rudderhead.
Just a thought.

 

[charles_reed]

On the contrary a good autopilot will steer a boat more accurately than any human, except when anticipation is called for.

However, you'll find all the autopilots, operating with a drum on the wheel to be unsatisfactory and, I personally wouldn't waste my money on one of these.
The real answer is to have one operating onto the rudder quadrant. there are a number of manufacturers, probably one of the best being Robertson (part of Kongsberg).
Don't be misled by the excessive enthusiasm of the various marketing departments - go for a pilot for a boat a size up from yours.

 

[Achilles]

Charles, do please try reading the question before sounding off.

 

[castaway]

I think that the rudder head/quardrant idea is not an option here. We are talking about a tiller pilot being used on a wheel so it would have to be hooked on when in use and lifted off when the boat is hand steered.

I imagine what Keith has in mind is a bracket to hold the pilot adjacent to the wheel and a ring or similar on the wheel to carry the little peg thingy. That way when he wants to go fwd to get his mainsail up he can hook on the AP and it will deal with the small course deflections that would otherwise have him running back and forth to the wheel half a dozen times in the 3 mins it takes to get the sail up.

I think that for a cheap fix it should work well.

Nick