• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

Ericson 29 replacement tiller

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
I managed to break the tiller yesterday - the water was a bit choppy and during a tack, I lost my balance and put my full weight on the tiller handle. Crrrr-ack! (Surely, this has nothing to do with my developing “old-man-bod...”) It split lengthwise from the butt. I whipped it as best I could with what was available on board and gingerly sailed back to the marina.

So, of the selections available in the West Marine catalog, option “E” 46.75” length with 4.75” rise seems like the best match to what I have. But then again, I have no idea whether this is the original tiller or what the original spec was. Anybody have an alternate dimension?

I’ve poured some epoxy into the crack and cinched on a few wraps of seizing wire, but I don’t have have super high expectations for the attempted repair.
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Possible Solution

Seattle Swap Meet, Sept 14... be early for best pickings....
:cool:
 
Last edited:

G Kiba

Sustaining Member
I did that! A few years back (6 or 7 actually). The tiller split on a lamination so I glued it and drove screws through the bottom to hold it all together (looked good from above). I keep that one as a spare backup. That happened when H and L in SoCal was just closing its doors. I was able to still get a perfect replacement before they closed. Now I don't know where to go but found this online and know the name has come up several times on this forum. Good luck on your search. If you want I can measure my E27 tiller.

https://store.ruddercraft.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=181_88
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
Thanks! Ruddercraft specify one of their stock models for the E29, and it's about six inches shorter than the one I have now. (Their photos and pricing look suspiciously similar to the WM item, though this one is not listed there.) In the past, I have actually considered shortening the tiller, because it comes right up to the companionway, and sometimes makes passage difficult. Not to mention the design of any kind of door to replace the drop boards. Also, I whacked a guest with the tiller about six times last week!

On the other hand, it occurs to me that changing the tiller profile will probably require installation of a new socket for the tiller pilot. Come to think of it, there is an extra socket on the opposite side of the boat, that doesn't seem to line up correctly - must have been either for a different tiller or a different pilot.
 

Kenneth K

1985 32-3, Puget Sound
Blogs Author
If you like the tiller you have, I might try routing a 1/4 "deep groove on either side of the tiller, and laying in an aluminum bar on each side to fill the routed voids. You could screw the bars down with wood screws every few inches, or try to through-bolt two both plates at the same time.

Black painted aluminum bars might look better. Or some exotic dark hardwood. Just some thoughts.
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
Well, it turns out that Ruddercraft have a 30-day lead time to produce a tiller, in case anybody needs to know in the future.

On reinstalling my patched-up stick (temporarily!), I discovered

A. It was installed a little cock-eyed in the first place - maybe contributing to the spit. I.e. the mounting holes were not drilled on center. And
B. One arm of the bronze bracket that holds the tiller is also split almost all the way through. Right at one of the mounting holes. Suspiciously, all the chroming is gone from the zone around the crack, as if someone tried and failed to repair it in the past. One of those things right in front of my nose that I've never looked at carefully before.

I'm guessing that someone, sometime, tried to pry the bracket open, and cracked it. Could last like that for years, as it obviously already has, but I guess I'd better haul it up to the machine shop for repair this winter.

IMG_2291.jpgIMG_2293.jpg
 
Last edited:

tenders

Innocent Bystander
Toddster, my rudder head looks a lot like yours but has little tab plates/bushing surfaces between the tiller bracket and the rudder head. Without those, over time, the mounting bracket might have been squeezed a little too tight onto the rudder head. My brackets wore thin a few years ago and I made a new set with a piece of bronze sheet metal from McMaster, cut to rough size, bent in a vise, and then crudely ground to the correct shape on a bench grinder. They came out perfectly.

As I was doing this grinding I wondered if a new tiller bracket, if I ever needed one, could be fashioned more easily from G10 than recast in bronze. I bet it could.

D76379EF-7314-4009-990B-B55F27B8C93C.jpg
 

G Kiba

Sustaining Member
Tenders,
Looks like someone added those brackets to the tiller head. Nice idea! Maybe a piece of machined teflon in that shape might be a better choice for wear and lubrication.
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
I did casually look around for replacement brackets on-line. The only bronze ones I saw were quite expensive and too small. All the newer boats on my dock seem to simply have a couple pieces of aluminum bar stock instead of a bracket.
Seems like this shouldn't be hard to repair, but I'll defer to the opinion of a welder. After the weather gets bad...
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
Christmas in October!

So, the spiffy new tiller from Ruddercraft arrived today. Complete with a custom tiller-condom to keep it fresh. It is quite a bit different shape from the previous tiller. A bit shorter, as noted above, and the grip end is lower and more of a horizontal angle. I suspect that after a while, I won't even notice the difference. But Ruddercraft say that this is the "correct" shape for the E29.

IMG_2326.jpg

One nice result is that both tillers seem to have the same height at the point where the tiller-pilot pin goes, so that should be straightforward if I can get the angle of the hole right. The Forespar tiller extension socket is going to need a different solution, however. At least if I want to use the bracket that "parks" it on the tiller. I brought all the tiller hardware home, to drill holes with the drill press, but on impulse, I stopped at the machine shop and dropped off the bracket (described above) for repair. So now I don't have a template for drilling the holes and I don't have a way to steer the boat for a week! :esad: Well, it looks like there will be a couple of good paddling days in there, anyway.

I will definitely put in some shims, as described by Tenders. Perhaps I'll order up some delrin sheets or the like. Yesterday, during a long light downwind return leg, I noticed that a lot of the little "hunting" motions that the tiller-pilot makes are mostly wasted due to the slack in that joint. You can feel it when manually steering of course, but it keeps slipping my mind to do something about it. But yesterday was possibly the first light-wind sail of the year. The first time I really had nothing to do for a couple of hours but kick back with a cold one and observe.
 
Last edited:
Top