Tag: tiller

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How to Add Coachwhipping to Your Tiller Handle

$tingy Sailor

Want to add a decorative grip to the handle of your tiller? It’s not hard to do in a couple of hours and almost free with a few scraps of canvas and/or cord you may have lying around.

Coachwhipping is one of those little touches you can add to your sailboat to give it a more old-school, handcrafted look. It harkens back to a time when sailboats were made almost entirely out of wood and lashing parts together with rope was the norm. It’s a nice contrast to all the sterile fiberglass and stainless steel used on modern yachts and boosts your seaworthy credibility (or at least gives that illusion). Learning the knots and braids is fun. It’s a great way to spend time on a cold winter evening near the wood stove while the snow is falling.

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How to Install a Tiller Lock

$tingy Sailor

When we purchased Summer Dream, the only tiller control accessory she had was a contraption made with two pieces of shock cord joined in the middle with two wooden beads that formed an eye. It had hooks on the ends that could be attached to the pushpit stanchions. When the tiller handle is in the eye, the cords would hold it somewhat centered and you could adjust the tiller position by sliding the beads (and therefore, the eye) to one side or the other. It was simple and clever but the shock cord allowed the rudder to overpower it, so I couldn’t trust it to hold a heading for very long. I decided to replace it with a tiller lock device that would hold the tiller stationary no matter what. After evaluating several products, I chose the popular Davis Tiller Tamer.

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How to Replace Worn Tiller Bushings

$tingy Sailor

While I was doing my How To Repair a Rudder project, I noticed that the tiller bushings were worn and loose. At the time, I hoped they would last the season until I figured out how best to replace them. That was wishful thinking. While putting Summer Dance in the water for our last cruise, one of the bushing flanges nearly fell off in my hands. It didn’t keep us from sailing that day, but it meant I was going to have to make the repair sooner rather than later.

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