Emergency Tiller Poll

[Cheechako]

"I know that damn thing is stuffed under the V berth somewhere, or is that the the extra tube for the windvane...? "

[Lagoon4us]

Originally Posted by HappyMdRSailor

I am officially recruiting a "Poll Poster" for me the next time I get a bright (or dull) idea!


I was trying to do a little good by getting folks to think...

"You know... I should check my E-tiller sometime soon..."

Good input on the other posts people!

Hey we all gotta learn... You've made people think and thats cool!

[Andrew Troup]

E-tiller? is that like an I-patch?

[nhschneider]

When we were repowering, we had to be towed from our berth to the yard to have the new engine dropped in. Since we have a center cockpit, reconnecting the steering was way too much work for such a short distance. Our emergency tiller worked fine but I did learn that I never want to have to use it on a passage of any length!

Fair winds and calm seas.

[model 10]

We needed ours once on SF bay and it was a piece of crap! Ended up needing a tow back to the slip because we ran aground. We of course fixed the problem of the broken quadrant and built a new emergency tiller system that I hope we will never need.

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by Andrew Troup

E-tiller? is that like an I-patch?

An ipatch it a device to fix OS X. iPatch.org Home - iPod iPad iPhone 4 4S 3G 3GS video photo mini & nano repair

[tropicalescape]

I have one and it works fine ,its at the back of the cockpit near the sole and I can steer it with my foot!

[sabray]

Once the cable slacked and the helm chain jumped its links. The emergency tiller was useless until the cable and chain were cleared. Then the autopilot could steer so the tiller was not needed.
Funny this happened while practicing steering with sail trim and a locked rudder. Unexpected trial was heaving to without control and diagnostics while underway. Clearing the quadrant while hove to was interesting..

[xeon_tsd]

Thanksgiving week I was crew on a 44 cat that had a steering cable brake, thankfully only 80 miles or so from our destination of Key West. Emergency tiller worked great ONCE we got it in. The little plastic plug that covered the placement hole took a good bit of tackle and winching to get out!! Apparently 15 years of life at sea had dont a toll on the plug. Once we got the tiller inplace, we then rigged up some lines so we could use it from the cockpit. In calm conditions one person could control it easily, when the waves where a bit up, we shared the control, with 1 person pulling to port and the other pulling to starboard.

lessons learned for me... not only know eher the tiller is, and you can get to it, but make sure you can get the dang thing in...

also.. if your steering system has cables hidden away... make sure and check where those cables bend around and such!

[bstreep]

Well, my circumstance doesn't fit the poll:

I know where it is. I've opened the port. However, the port requires cutting through the headliner, and I'm NOT doing that until I need to.

That being said, we have a hydraulic autopilot, directly connected to the rudder post. That would be my first avenue if the steering fails.