Tiller Pilots??

[Seajet]

Chrusty,

though my boat has ended up with a fair bit of kit, I've bought it long after years of sailing without, so hopefully won't get complacent...

One thing, I don't know about your boat ( sorry if I missed earlier clues, what is she ? ) but I'm rather keen on the fact she has no skin fittings at all.

The loo is chemical - which is just as well from what I hear of holding tanks becoming mandatory - and I pump out the sink via a Whale bilge pump into the outboard well, where there's a seacock above normal water level, in case an emergency involving change of trim put it underwater.

The pump is the type one inserts a handle into when required, fitted in the bunk side; there's a diverter valve and coiled intake pipe under the sink, so I can pump her out while cowering below ( there's also a pump handy by the tiller ).

So the depthsounders are internally mounted, and i use a trail log on longer trips, putting up with the plotter and knowing the boat to judge speed etc in normal sailing.

As lightning strikes are said to often blow out seacocks, and the Carter 30 I had for a while ( went mad, sold my Anderson, instantly regretted it, had Carter for 3 years then managed to buy my A22 back ) - had 7 seacocks, always at least 1 on the blink despite maintenance, I sleep easier in every way knowing there are no holes in the hull !

The Carter's paddlewheel log was hopeless anyway, always clogging up with weed or wee beasties taking up residence; removing the impeller and capping the fierce jet of water was always good for adrenalin, I couldn't help thinking " One day, I or someone's going to get this cross-threaded ! "

I'm not at all sure trail logs are still available though, or at least affordable ones, my Wasp is fine for cross-Channel stuff...

 

[charles_reed]

Spot on. My deck-mounted gear ratted out on me in the N sea with crew laid low, me on watch and Mr Weather letting me know who's in charge. PCB fused in the rain - nice one. Never again.

Went out and bought a Simrad hydraulic pilot, attached to the quadrant, all electrics below.

Not cheap but 12 years later - still going faultlessly. Often on the job for 12-18 hours non-stop - that's my boy!

You only need look at a wind vane if you're going intercontinental.

PWG

In the last 25 years of single-handed sailing I've had a number of all-in-one tillerpilots and they all succumbed to water ingress, despite swaddling and greasing.

Having separate control box and fluxgate compass mounted in the dry and a pair of external linear actuators has stopped the failures for the last 18 years or 58K nautical miles.

All-in-one tillerpilots are occasional-use toys.

 

[Chrusty 1]

I don't know where you got the idea that my boat has no sea cocks, she has two as it happens, both for the heads. A proper sea toilet is the one concession to civilisation that she had when I bought her, I reckon you can guess how she came to have one right?

What is it with women, and bogs? Why can't they be content with buckit-n-chuckit like us blokes? I have been giving serious thought to heaving it over the side, and using the space created for a chain locker, much more useful!

If I don't do that, I think I will have to build a chain and rode chest on the foredeck, the arrangement she has now is far from ideal, the anchor rode comes down through a hawse pipe and is stowed in a large bucket like container that is just resting on the forepeak berths.......Not good.

Seeing as you asked, my boat is a Seal 22, the last one to be built by John Baker, who I think was building them at Starcross when she was built (1980), there are some similarities in the hull design with the Andy 22, at least in as much as they are both drop keel, with a heavy bulb on the end, total keel weight is 800 lbs. I bought her because I was finding that because of my limited mobility, getting in and out of the cabin on a small boat was getting a bit difficult, not so with the Seal, even with the side hatch boards in place, the centre of the hatch is much wider than on other boats of the same size.

I am slowly getting her ready for the coming season, and I am very much looking forward to getting her sailing.

My bilge pump arrangement is similar to yours, it's one of those Whales with a handle that you poke in the hole to operate, it lives under the starboard saloon berth. The paddle wheel thing on logs always seem to give folk a problem of one sort of another, and though I haven't given a trailing log much thought of late, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have a look out for one, I don't think they are much use for coastal cruising, but as you say, for a dash across the channel, either English or Bristol, might be a useful addition?

Well, I think that's me for the night, unless I feel a bit more awake later.

Cheers Ray.

Chrusty,

though my boat has ended up with a fair bit of kit, I've bought it long after years of sailing without, so hopefully won't get complacent...

One thing, I don't know about your boat ( sorry if I missed earlier clues, what is she ? ) but I'm rather keen on the fact she has no skin fittings at all.

The loo is chemical - which is just as well from what I hear of holding tanks becoming mandatory - and I pump out the sink via a Whale bilge pump into the outboard well, where there's a seacock above normal water level, in case an emergency involving change of trim put it underwater.

The pump is the type one inserts a handle into when required, fitted in the bunk side; there's a diverter valve and coiled intake pipe under the sink, so I can pump her out while cowering below ( there's also a pump handy by the tiller ).

So the depthsounders are internally mounted, and i use a trail log on longer trips, putting up with the plotter and knowing the boat to judge speed etc in normal sailing.

As lightning strikes are said to often blow out seacocks, and the Carter 30 I had for a while ( went mad, sold my Anderson, instantly regretted it, had Carter for 3 years then managed to buy my A22 back ) - had 7 seacocks, always at least 1 on the blink despite maintenance, I sleep easier in every way knowing there are no holes in the hull !

The Carter's paddlewheel log was hopeless anyway, always clogging up with weed or wee beasties taking up residence; removing the impeller and capping the fierce jet of water was always good for adrenalin, I couldn't help thinking " One day, I or someone's going to get this cross-threaded ! "

I'm not at all sure trail logs are still available though, or at least affordable ones, my Wasp is fine for cross-Channel stuff...