Tiller tamers

It depends. If you can set your sails so that it will sail in a straight line then possibly. Under motor it may be more successful. I made a small clamp that I use with a string tied across the cockpit, which is essentially what all these devices are, and it works fine for a few minutes. Having said that my boat is a lot more susceptible to weight than yours so if I go forwards it wanders a bit. Is it better than a bit of string? Probably not as it is doing the same thing.
 
I had to improvise with a line when my a/helm went wappy on the round Britain. I never managed to lock, go below, use the heads and get back up without doing a 180... (Now where's that Comfort bottle?..)
 
They all work in much the same way but success depends mainly on how well you can balance the boat. Work best going to windward with a boat that is directionally stable and when conditions are constant. Therefore limited in their application compared with a tiller pilot.

On my tiller steered boat I used tiller pegs with some success and just plain old bits of string around the tiller to cleats also worked but a faff to set up .
 
My boat happens to have the aft mooring cleats level with halfway along the tiller, so a bit of line from one cleat, two turns around the tiller then fairly tightly to the opposite cleat works well when sailing - and there's enough give to allow an emergency hard over shove on the tiller, guess how I know...

I once saw a boat with a similar set-up, as soon as they were clear of the Needles channel the young couple disappeared below; the boat did a complete 360 and back on course but nobody appeared :)
 
Use a short piece of rope with a short section of bungee cord (or surgical tubing) on each end. You can see it if you go to page 5-1 of the free book that you can download here: http://sfbaysss.org/main/resources/
This book will teach you how you can sail across an ocean with only $5 worth of surgical tubing. Have fun.
 
As said smaller boats are susceptible to course change with weight movement. However I found what works well is a long piece of bungee cord attached to mooring cleats or similar either side of the tiller. Where the bungee cord passes the end of the tiller give it about 3 turns around the tiller. This holds the tiller mid position but enables you to simply froce the tiller over with bungee attached to make course corrections. To vary the bias of the tiller to get boat to track successfully you roll the 3 turns of bungee on the tiller to shorten one side lengthen the other. Very cheap very simple but you have to monitor the boats heading for a while and especially if you move your weight. olewill
 
I think the advantage of a proprietary tiller tamer like mine is the ease of setting it up and disconnecting. For this reason they are worth having. The course holding isn't very good on a small boat however. I find I can steer with it engaged by shifting my weight on my Leisure 20.
 
I had a Tiller tamer on my Jag 23 and have the Seasure version on my Super Seal 26 and both work well. As the above have said, no substitute for a proper tiller pilot, but invaluable if you just need to nip forward for a minute or two to sort something out.
 
I use one that simply locks onto a line passing across above the tiller with the flick of a lever, and releases just as quickly. Absolutely essential when sailing single handed, especially in close waters where you may be tacking within a matter of seconds rather than minutes (rivers for example). It just has to hold the tiller where you've put it long enough to get the jib across and sheeted. For longer fetches you obviously set up the pilot.
 
I find a short length of very light chain attached to the pushpit stanchions by strong bungee cord so that a chain link can be dropped over the Autohelm pin works well. When singlehanding I regularly use it when tacking to hold the helm over and it can very easily be disengaged.
 
I had a grand plan three years back with tiny blocks in the corners of the cockpit, carrying steering lines from the tiller over 8ft to the forward bulkhead, through more blocks and around the mast where they met...so I could steer from anywhere in the cockpit.

Trouble was, the cockpit bulkheads are curved, so the taut line was several inches from the bulkheads midway up their length, and was apt to snag every rope and limb at large in the boat.

I simply gave up, but with a light helm, the tiller can't be left alone for a second - the extension's weight swings it about so I still need to find a solution, especially for my singlehanded spinnaker ambitions. I can see that bungees are good because they enable periods of helm independence, but also allow rapid human intervention even without disconnection of the 'tamer' from the tiller.

A bungee which centres the helm, could be made cleverer by addition of steering lines, led forward tidily through flat cable-trunking on the bulkheads...then at the front of the cockpit, the steering lines could emerge as port and starboard Turk's heads...

...so while the bungee keeps the helm generally centred, a quick tug on one or other Turk's head would correct errant course change, before letting the bungees hold the tiller amidships again.

I wonder what's the best thing for sticking that PVC trunking to painted GRP? :confused:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/d-line-mini-decorative-trunking-30mm-x-15mm-x-2m-white/42453
 
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I tried "sheet to tiller" steering on my old boat worked pretty well. This is not my boat, but shows you how it is done.

 
yimkin said:
I find a short length of very light chain attached to the pushpit stanchions by strong bungee cord so that a chain link can be dropped over the Autohelm pin works well. When singlehanding I regularly use it when tacking to hold the helm over and it can very easily be disengaged.
Click to expand...

Beautifully simple. :encouragement:
 
Having said that my boat is a lot more susceptible to weight than yours so if I go forwards it wanders a bit.

A bit of Fred Drift, but Jissel used to do that under tiller pilot. It turned out that my trusty Victorinox pocket knife was quite strongly magnetic.
 
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