1

[dserrell]

1

[Bob Condon]

I don't know your woodworking capability but you could take a 2x3 or 2x4, use the existing tiller
as a template and roughly cut out a new one. This would be your emergency tiller and it could be
shorter than your existing tiller. My Cape Dory tiller is only a couple feet long while the real tiller is 5feet.

I would not bother with steel or aluminum.

[kchunk]

I've never really even thought about an emergency tiller. I'd expect one on a boat with wheel steering with the cables, quadrants and all the hidden monkey motion. But a transom hung rudder with tiller? It can't get much simpler than that. I suppose the worse that can happen is, like you mentioned, someone falling on it. But I don't think even that will completely break it off..split it or weaken it, sure, but it seems it should still be useable enough to get home.

Now I'm not speaking as an authority here. This is the only boat I've owned with a tiller. I just never thought about an emergency tiller. Is an emergency tiller common on tiller steered boats like ours (not bluewater cruisers that can be days from land)?

--Greg

[Bob23]

Never heard of carrying an emergency tiller on a tiller steered boat. That's not to say it should or shouldn't be done. My original tiller is in great condition. The only reason I can see a tiller splitting along the bolt holes is that it was in bad condition to begin with. Replace it before it breaks!
Bob23 & s/v "Koinonia"

[Bob Condon]

My Cape dory is a wheel boat and I have an emergency tiller for that. The CP19's tiller was in poor shape so I just
epoxied all the layers back together, gave it 6 coats of varnish... looks purty.. and then made a
sumbreller covers for that and the winches.

The cover will greatly reduce the deterioration.

[mrb]

I can imagine a good tiller or any other thing breaking when it is abused in such a way that is not intended to be abused,  kind of like the bull in a china shop.  Can't you imagine some oaf deciding to sit on the tiller, cool like a actor running across your car hood in a commercial.  Nice to see but don't even think about doing it for real.

Thats why we all carry spare line and other equipment.