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National Tiller Day

2K views 10 replies 8 participants last post by  tenuki 
#1 ·
Is the first Sat in June with the official day being on 06-06-09.

Just because!!

This is My side of the story...

Once upon a time a couple of sailors went across the bays you see.
When all of the sudden...

Pop!

and no steering..............


Not to worry,
the faithful captain had his emergency tiller ready,

or so he thought...

The dissapointed captain took the tiller out in pieces,
all 5 of them...

It seems he had rather neglected the sweet precious tiller,
and so it delaminated.

Hm.

And so we were out there just floundering around in the water when the captain remembered that he had some really good aluminum tape like what they use on air conditioners.
and
he also had some black duck tape.
So I held said sweet tiller together,
and he tapted it.

Problem solved.
but then when the boat was turned in the other direction because it had been drifting,
The captain did not make an effort to get back on course.
He was going to go back!
And I looked at him square and said...

"We're not going back are we??"
And he said..
"The home port is closer."
And I said..
"What!!??!?!?"

"If you can't sail this boat with a tiller,
you aint got a hair on yer a__!"

Guess what we did..

It's now the official song of
'National Tiller Day"

Moral of the story..

"Always check your tiller boss....,
It'll help you get a handle on things
for when it happens out there!!"
Signed
Cpt Ron




 
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#3 ·
Tillers rock... much simpler than wheels...
 
#8 ·
I sailed a boat with a wheel once. Kept turning in the wrong direction, and never knew how far over the helm actually was.:eek: Very confusing things, wheels.:D
You should probably have a yellow flashing light on the roof of your car then.:D

And a properly set-up wheel should have a marker indicating straight-ahead. We have a cord tied there so that it can be felt in the dark.
 
#5 ·
That's the spirit!!

I wonder how many sailors
have never used a tiller??
({whispering} Maybe they should practice;) )

I was talking to a friend of mine,
he said,
the tiller makes you feel like one with the water!!

Oh how I love the tiller!!

I hope that chain doesn't get fixed anytime soon!!:D
 
#6 · (Edited)
Tried it once...

We used a tiller once, when the cables on the quadrant got loose and we shipped the emergency unit into place. It needed two hefty guys to hold it in less than 20 knots of breeze and smooth 3' rollers off the quarter. Glad our wheel has worked for the past twelve years except for that three hour episode, but I guess that's why we have one, and I'm glad we did.
 
#7 ·
We used a tiller once, when the cables on the quadrant got loose and we shipped the emergency unit into place. It needed two hefty guys to hold it in less than 20 knots of breeze and smooth 3' rollers off the quarter. Glad our wheel has worked for the past twelve years except for that three hour episode, but I guess that's why we have one, and I'm glad we did.
A rudder designed for a tiller is substantially different to that designed for a wheel. It will always be hard to steer a wheel-steered boat with a tiller because of that difference.

My boat's emergency tiller is about 7 feet long and still requires considerable effort to manage.:(
 
#10 ·
With all due respect Omatako, there is no inherrent difference between the design of a rudder for wheel steering and a rudder for tiller steering. That said, there are differences in cockpit layouts. Typically the binacle location restricts the length of tiller that can be used and so typically emergency tillers end up being way shorter than the length of a tiller that would be ideal for the size of the boat and loads on the helm.

Very often it becomes necessary to rig what historically was called a 'Manila Mike', which is a length of line tied to the tiller and run through a block and tackle or else around a winch to give the helmsperson some purchase and relief.

Jeff
 
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