DaySailer.org Forum

Re Greenlake's tiller system as I adapted it
First some info
I always sail singlehanded , my tiller is 54" long with a clip on 18" extension. Under power I sometimes stand with the tiller between my legs or hand operated.
My adaption of GL's system is a 1/2" line taught between the (2) rear cleats and a bungee cord wrapped twice around the tiller (tiller above the line) and athwartships line. I can still steer by hand or with my legs however the boat does not wander if I step away for a minute.
When sailing I sit in the cockpit with one or the other shoulder against the cuddy. Sitting forward is the best place for the trim of my hull and I can reach all lines from there , halyards , sheets and jiffy reefing and tiller steer with the extension if needed.
When she is correctly balanced there is very little load on the tiller , in a gust she can still round up.
If I get it all right on some days I can steer a bit by moving fwd or aft not touching the tiller. That's a "glory" day
I will try to attach a photo of the setup.
JW

zeroready wrote:

Mackrelman wrote:I changed out my tiller lock to Greenlake's system about a year ago.
Jim W

I have seen a little of GLs system, I get how it would work and I like it. But is it always tensioned? Like under normal sailing when you're just cruising, is the tiller stiff and hard to move? I like my tiller tamer because when it's unlocked I can feel what the rudder is wanting to do, currents and everything. I like to feel the boat. I wouldn't want to lose that feeling. Can it be easily removed and reapplied as needed?

It's a bit more resistance than without, but I don't find it impacts my use of the tiller.

Unhooks when I'm sailing crewed.

This is how I set mine up at first and I'd agree that there's slight resistance to moving the tiller but I didn't think it was bad at all. I found that I had to keep a few of the tarp ball bungees (not sure what they're actually called) that wrap around the tiller & line in the boat as they seemed to wear out fast. The line I had on there was a bit older so maybe it was more abrasive than normal. I have some new line I'm going to try out on my next sail. I also tried it the other way around, with the bungee strung across the boat, but I didn't like that.

Actually, I have both. It's a bungee on bungee system.

I've not observed any sawing and the bungees for the wrap are 3/16" while the main one is 3/8" (guessing from the apparent ratio in size) with a nice soft cover.

I think that the slight "give" in the bungee going across potentially helps in keeping the required "grip" of the wrap relatively low.