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Our turn with the busted tiller...

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Prospector
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
3159 Posts

Initially Posted - 08/31/2012 : 06:55:16

Its Wednesday race night, and we are running a little behind getting out of the club. Winds are only 6 kts and waves are slowing us considerably. For crew I have my daughter (15 yrs old) who is driving us to the start line.

On the way out of the harbour I'm tuning the rig on the fly and getting sails up.

The main is being belligerent (need some sail-kote in the mast track or whatever) and then I realize we still have a reef in from our last outing. Shake out the reef, and we're sailing. Since the wind could build or drop off I'm taking the conservative route and sailing with the 110% up front with the 155% close at hand for a sail change once I am convinced that the wind isn't going to build.

We finally get to the starting box and join the dance with only a few minutes left of the pre-start. Fleet one leaves as I shut off the outboard.

I reach back to take the tiller from Chuck, and stumble. My right hand finds the tiller and my left finds the bench. As I come down, I hear a loud Crick! and transfer my weight to the bench side.

The tiller is still in its stock, but any downward pressure, and you can feel its lamination separating.

No problem though - I have a spare in the dumpster. Lets go sailing.

I have never had such great impetus to maintain neutral helm. Staying with the smaller sail, and maintaining a conservative course, even steering with the sails sometimes, we made it through the race without the tiller letting go. And we did really well too. At least for us.

In the last 2 legs we changed up to the 155% sail and got major gains on our competitors, but still stayed very conservative in our sailing.

On the way back to the clubhouse I went below to get tools and change out the tiller... I had taken all the tools off the boat for projects around the house. Duh! Stupid. Good thing the tiller never let go on the course.

Moral of the story - having a spare is useless if you can't put it on. Keep some tools around! An adjustable wrench and a slot screwdriver in this case!

"Iris"
1984 FK/SR #4040
http://frosthaus.blogspot.com/

Take a minute to register your boat with the association!!
http://www.catalina-capri-25s.org/owner_questionnaire.htm

Edited by - on

PCP777
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1225 Posts

Response Posted - 08/31/2012 : 07:49:51

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Prospector
 Its Wednesday race night, and we are running a little behind getting out of the club. Winds are only 6 kts and waves are slowing us considerably. For crew I have my daughter (15 yrs old) who is driving us to the start line.

On the way out of the harbour I'm tuning the rig on the fly and getting sails up.

The main is being belligerent (need some sail-kote in the mast track or whatever) and then I realize we still have a reef in from our last outing. Shake out the reef, and we're sailing. Since the wind could build or drop off I'm taking the conservative route and sailing with the 110% up front with the 155% close at hand for a sail change once I am convinced that the wind isn't going to build.

We finally get to the starting box and join the dance with only a few minutes left of the pre-start. Fleet one leaves as I shut off the outboard.

I reach back to take the tiller from Chuck, and stumble. My right hand finds the tiller and my left finds the bench. As I come down, I hear a loud Crick! and transfer my weight to the bench side.

The tiller is still in its stock, but any downward pressure, and you can feel its lamination separating.

No problem though - I have a spare in the dumpster. Lets go sailing.

I have never had such great impetus to maintain neutral helm. Staying with the smaller sail, and maintaining a conservative course, even steering with the sails sometimes, we made it through the race without the tiller letting go. And we did really well too. At least for us.

In the last 2 legs we changed up to the 155% sail and got major gains on our competitors, but still stayed very conservative in our sailing.

On the way back to the clubhouse I went below to get tools and change out the tiller... I had taken all the tools off the boat for projects around the house. Duh! Stupid. Good thing the tiller never let go on the course.

Moral of the story - having a spare is useless if you can't put it on. Keep some tools around! An adjustable wrench and a slot screwdriver in this case!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

We had a carbon fiber tiller on the 27 that completely failed on a race a couple months ago. Had to limp back to the marina steering with what was left of the nub. The skipper of the C-27 works at a recycling yard and now has replaced the tiller with a shiny chromed out piece of a Nissan 240Z. This steel tiller will never fail and it's a great conversation piece as well. Next time I'm out I will take a picture of it.

Edited by - on

Prospector
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
3159 Posts

Response Posted - 08/31/2012 : 10:17:38

Great, now I have to buy a Nissan in order to get a tiller...

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 08/31/2012 : 10:38:31

That sounds eerily similar to how I broke the last foot off of my tiller. A slight stumble, catch my weight on the tiller & seat at about the same time, and then a look of astonishment when I still had the tiller in my hand except it wasn't attached to the rest of the tiller.

Glad you guys were able to continue your sail and carry on. We did the same with the stub of the tiller, it broke right at the autopilot pin, so there was still about 3' of tiller to work with, only slightly less than what I've got using my "emergency" tiller (which I've used this entire season so far).

You might think about using a wingnut on your tiller attachment so you don't need tools when swapping out to your emergency tiller.

Edited by - on

Prospector
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Canada
3159 Posts

Response Posted - 08/31/2012 : 10:52:20

A wingnut sounds like a good idea. Ours let go inside the "headstock" delaminating around the bolts. As long as I could keep the square end of it inbetween the steel sideplates I knew I would be OK. The whole thing really wasn't an ordeal, except when I needed to stand up or sitdown and change the angle of the tiller.

I wonder if a little epoxy in the bolt holes woulda been a good thing.

Also, its been at least 5 years since that tiller had been refinished, although it was removed and inspected last fall. Looked OK to me at the time.

Edited by - on

Dave5041
Former Mainsheet Editor

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USA
3758 Posts

Response Posted - 08/31/2012 : 13:57:14

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">shiny chromed out piece of a Nissan 240Z<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

At least it will be a used one. Look for a Datsun, not Nissan, from way back in the days of the 240Z.

Edited by - on

John Russell
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3444 Posts

Response Posted - 08/31/2012 : 14:56:52

Won't that steel get pretty hotin the Texas sun?

Edited by - on

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.