E 27 Tiller - suggestions on how to tie off when under sail

Hi All !

Since having acquired my E 27 a few months ago I have been mostly singled handed when at sean. I am looking for suggestions on how to secure the tiller when under sail so that I may attend to other matters. As always thank you for your support.

Joe

Try This

I have wheel steering, so no direct experience, but I ran across these the other day:

http://www.blumhorst.com/potterpages/Photopoint/0005/cajun-tiller-tamer.htm

http://www.davisnet.com/product_documents/marine/manuals/2205_IM_TillerTamer.pdf

The best

Before they were manufactured in this country, I had what I think was the first Autohelm in the US. Lars Bergstrom, a friend, brought one back from a trip to England and sold it to me, while he had another imported. Once you've used an autopilot (the Autohelm 2000 will take care of an E-27 even in rough weather) you will wonder how you ever got along without one. Hooked up to a GPS, the 2000 will take you to sequential waypoints in fine style and beep to announce your arrival. If you need to motor, an autopilot is a godsend.

I use a bungee cord wrapped around the tiller that is then hooked with both hooks on to an adjustable loop on a short line (using a rolling hitch) this line is then cleated of to the windward jib sheet cleat.
Once sails are set and the length of the control line loop is set to put the tiller in the right position all you have to do is nudge the tiller every two minutes or so.
This system does not work very well downwind I have not tried using lines going to both sides of the boat yet for downwind runs.

Autopilots are great but this system is much cheaper (granted you do have to play with it a while to get it to work right)

Tiller Tamer.

I have the Tiller Tamer on my E 23-2. On My Cape Dory, I used Bungie cord hooked to the hasp on the P & S cockpit lockers and a clove hitch around the tiller.
Either way, it is simple and quick to change the amount of rudder angle used.

I've tried lashing down the tiller, with or without a bungee, with little success. I think I tied the lines off on stanchions. The idea was to keep the boat slowly motoring into the wind while I scrambled forward to raise the sails. Maybe it's our gusty winds and choppy waves, but the environment here is far too dynamic for the boat to be stable with an immobilized tiller. Before I could get back to the cockpit, it would fall off, jibe, head straight for a rock. And I had to stop and untie the tiller before I could regain control. :0 Haven't tried it under sail.

For that matter, I spent last weekend on a larger boat with an autopilot, and wasn't much impressed with that either. We fiddled with the sensitivity settings, but most of the time, it proceeded in a series of wild 30-degree swings. Not good on a crowded shoal-ly river.

Speaking of Autohelm 2000 - anybody use one on an E29 in various conditions? It seems somewhat close to the upper end of the recommended weight range. But the next larger unit costs twice as much...