Adding a tiller

[Nick]

Probably a silly question but has anybody replaced the pedastal and its associated wheel steering with a tiller. Removing the pedastal and probably the rear fold up seat and having a hinged tiller that could be lifted up out of the way would give the cockpit area a lot more room. A more direct link with the steering arm and non reliance on cables and gears could mean a more reliable and solid feel to the helm. Anyway it was just a thought that took hold of my Mac obsessed mind the other night as I sat aboard during our long weekend on the Gippsland Lakes.

Cheers Nick

[edurbin]

hey nick,
Thought about it. Had a good discussion about options maybe 2 years ago on this site. I was initially keen on rotating the pedestal, or moving it offcentre so there would be more room to get around it on the starboard side. Eventually I decided this was too much trouble and expense for me. So, I made a new cockpit seat for the starboard side. That is, a cut out section so you get an extra 6 or 8 inches of room on the starboard side to move around the pedestal.

Good luck with the tiller - it would improve space. Finding a place for the motor control remains a bit tricky though. I kind of prefer the steering wheel - my last boat had a tiller, and all day hanging on to it gave me a sore shoulder. At least with the wheel you can take your hands off it under sail.

Hope to get on the Gippland lakes one of these days as well.

Cheers
Craig

[ronacarme]

1. Ditto Craig. I would not give up the capability of the wheel steering on our X to self steer the boat on a reach and to windward, so far for up to 40 minutes at a time. My prior boats all had tiller steering that I tried to make self steer with various combinations of line and shock cord, but with nowhere near the self steering precision and duration of our X wheel steering.
I single hand a lot, and have tasks additional to steering (including handing hank-on headsails). Carmen, when aboard, does not wish to steer for long periods. Thus, our X's intrinsic self steering capability is important to us
2. I clamped an emergency tiller pipe on our x's transverse steering tube (the bent tube connecting the rudders). It thus moves from side to side between the cockpit seats ( does not pivot like the usual tiller). It is rather floppy and is imprecise in steering the boat. Lousy substitute for the stock wheel steering, but maybe better than nothing if the stock wheel steering sytem ever seizes up.
Ron

[Bertil Rafting]

I have taken away the wheel and the piedestal and added a tiller. Was rather easy. If you like I can send a picture.

[Russ]

Please send a picture. I'm sure others would benefit from seeing it

--Russ

[sailboatmike]

I can imagine nothing worse than being on the tiller all the time, one of the pluses for the Mac is the wheel steering, on my X the steering is extremely direct which take a bit of getting used to, I would prefer a less direct helm, I think mine is about 1/4 turn to full lock each way which makes fine adjustments a bit difficult, but compared to hanging onto the tiller all day its a no brainer, I sail to relax not be chained to the tiller

[Sumner]

I can imagine nothing worse than being on the tiller all the time...

Easy fix for that....



Maybe easier and cheaper to install than a wheel auto-pilot. I wish I would of installed one years ago. Love it,

Sumner

============================
1300 miles to the Bahamas and back -- 2015

The MacGregor 26-S

The Endeavour 37

Trips to Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[BOAT]

As a kid I would sit on the tiller for 7 to 8 hours at a time - it was a bit tiresome. The tiller does respond better - in fact if you look at a lot of the Vendee Globe boats (those are the 65 footers that racers sail around the world solo) many of them have a tiller - a lot of skippers who sail high speed sailboats in heavy seas say the tiller is a lot safer for negotiating big waves.

I can't say because I never had a boat that fast and I try to stay away from the big waves - but I think most of us that sailed a lot in the old days probably still prefer a tiller.

I have considered putting a tiller in "boat" but not like most of you would want - the tiller I think I might indeed be installing in "boat" is going to be a custom made mechanical extension to the tiller arm that is below decks - my tiller is not going to be designed to use from the cockpit. The tiller I am designing is for steering the boat from inside the cabin - it will serve two purposes -
one, an emergency tiller in case the steering breaks,
two - in conjunction with a modification to the sliding hatch, it can be a dry steering position in case I get caught in really bad weather.
I want to convert the hatch just slightly so I can do a popup or a tilt or something that will allow me to have a soft or hard window under the hatch to look out from a dry position. If the hatch could just pop up about 8 to 10 inches that would be enough for a pretty good periscope view.

[sailboatmike]

Those Vendee Globe boats are just something else, normally I dont like pure racing boats as they are so different from what you and I sail they may as well be space shuttles but those boats have just tweaked my imagination with their ability to handle the seas and outright speed, not the fastest but I would dare to venture that for the conditions they are built to take they are incredibly quick.

The skippers on those boat are just incredible, they are assisted by top of the line technology in weather forecasting, electronics etc.. but highly impressive.

I have noted that the leaders who a few days ago were posting videos a couple of times a day and now being very quiet as the gap at the front closes down, Alex thompson has caught up over 500Nm in 3 days, now less than 300 miles in it with 6000 to go to the finish

[Seapup]

Removing the pedastal and probably the rear fold up seat and having a hinged tiller that could be lifted up out of the way would give the cockpit area a lot more room.

I would not give up the capability of the wheel steering on our X to self steer the boat on a reach and to windward, so far for up to 40 minutes at a time. My prior boats all had tiller steering that I tried to make self steer with various combinations of line and shock cord, but with nowhere near the self steering precision and duration of our X wheel steering.

I have not seen it implemented on a mac yet, so it just in theory, but a stick steer could be a cool mac mod. If one doesn't hack job the install it should be a straightforward swap back to the wheel for resale too. It would allow removal of the pedestal & add the quickness of a tiller and use of a basic $300 tillerpilot.

[Bertil Rafting]

Here is the picture as promised:

[BOAT]

Removing the pedastal and probably the rear fold up seat and having a hinged tiller that could be lifted up out of the way would give the cockpit area a lot more room.

I would not give up the capability of the wheel steering on our X to self steer the boat on a reach and to windward, so far for up to 40 minutes at a time. My prior boats all had tiller steering that I tried to make self steer with various combinations of line and shock cord, but with nowhere near the self steering precision and duration of our X wheel steering.

I have not seen it implemented on a mac yet, so it just in theory, but a stick steer could be a cool mac mod. If one doesn't hack job the install it should be a straightforward swap back to the wheel for resale too. It would allow removal of the pedestal & add the quickness of a tiller and use of a basic $300 tillerpilot.

[Highlander]

Boat
If u go to the macgregor19 yahoo group
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/mac ... ?reverse=1

There was a few guys who installed that stick rudder in front of the cockpit & inside the cabin , u maybe b able to find some pic,s there

J

[BOAT]

I can't get into the yahoo groups - but I can imagine adding another clamp to the underside of the motor well to connect another steering cable - exactly the same as the factory steering cable - only on the opposite side. The cable does not need to be connected all the time, although if it puts no drag at all on the factory wheel steering then I guess it could be left connected all the time.

Either way - the place to mount the stick would be in that huge hole alongside the port side of the cockpit - it's not in the way of the dinette there and you could sit in the companionway opening there very comfortably and control the boat with the stick. The stick would be removable when not needed.

I guess a little fold out chair/shelf on the top step of the ladder would work - then you could just sit right there and look out over the sliding hatch and control the boat by moving the stick up and down. Add a plastic bubble top or canvas dodger thingy with windows and you could also have an all weather pilot station there. A bubble top of hard clear plastic would work if you locked the sliding hatch in a half open position (so it would not slide closed an cut off your head while your driving in stormy seas with waves crashing over the boat and you sitting all nice and dry in the boat).

Storm sailing is really a lot more survivable if you can stay out of the elements - it increases your survival chances by more than 90% according to the coast guard.

hmmmmm . . .

[kurz]

at Bertil:
Is this tiller adaption hydraulic or mecanic style?
And where do you put the throttle for the OB?

Interesting mod! you save much room in the cockpit this way.

How it is when sailing/heeling? I ask becouse the tiller is not in the middle of the boat!