It would be an interesting blog....
I think the prior owner traded his emergency tiller for single malt. Anyone have one of these lying around? Don't make me try to fabricate one... I will subject you all to a blog post about it
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Second choice: Anyone made one of these and created a blog post about it that I can follow?
Oh My.
We found this factory assembly (two parts, actually) rattling round in the aft port laz. of our boat after cleaning it up, just after the purchase.
I had not thought about its resemblance to a "clam gun"!
Maybe a small clam....
Ours is an aluminum tube with a slot on the bottom to engage the cross-bar in the top of the rudder post. There's a hole thru the top - must be about an inch. A cross piece of alum. tubing goes through this so that the distressed skipper can force the rudder to turn one way or the other, if he has frickin' biceps like Popeye...
Both pieces are thick wall.
If starting over, I would make the top piece (i.e. the tiller piece) as long as possible, given whatever room it needs to clear the wheel base. Or, design it with a U shape that would allow it to go around the wheel pedistal and give some useable torque and grip. Your rudder head access plate -- is it on the floor of the cockpit?
If I had a larger supply of "druthers" I would have a full rudder head fitting, needing only the insertion of the tiller, for a Real back up plan.
*Sidebar: remember that you likely will also need a decent size "bolt cutter" on board as well. Since, the most likely way you will lose steering is that the old steering cable will break or jam into the axle of the turning sheaves. Unless you have a ton of sea room and matching amounts of time to dismantle the cable steering, you will have to access the tight quarters under the cockpit from the cramped area in the rear of your quarter berth and cut away the jammed cables in order to use the emergency tiller.
The 32 (and 35) Mk 3 versions both have really nifty cockpit layouts in some ways, but the Mk 2 versions had far easier tiller changeovers, IMHO.
Regards,
Loren