HELP Mounting a tillerpilot on a Santana 35

[kurtjfred]

Recently purchased a Santana 35 and challenged with trying to mount a tillerpilot. The Tiller and the top of the cockpit bench are offset way more than I typically see on other tiller/sailboats. Most that I've looked at are only a few inches and don't require more than an L bracket of just 2 or 3 inches mounted on the underside of the tiller handle and it drops the mount to match up with the height of the bench top where the tillerpilot mounts.
I was thinking of fabricating a pedestal on 3 or 4 legs to mount to the bench top, removable socket/pin just like the tillerpilot itself, that would raise the tiller pilot 8 inches or more. The only other idea I could come up with is to make a custom tiller handle that S turns down and make sure the bend is far enough out not to hit the transom. Any of you ran into this problem before? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[kurtjfred]

Wow, 57 views and not a bit of advice. Bummer.

[goat]

Originally Posted by kurtjfred

Wow, 57 views and not a bit of advice. Bummer.

Pictures are worth a thousand views.

goat

[Sailmonkey]

How about extending the tiller pilot so it can be mounted on the coaming rather than the bench?


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[JPA Cate]

kurt,

What kind of a tiller pilot is it?

Would it line up better if mounted in the aft end of the cockpit, close as you can get to the rudder post?

See, without pictures or accurate drawings, it's difficult to visualize the difficulties. Sorry, don't mean to sound picky.

Ann

[barnakiel]

Why not mount the drive onto the coaming and use a rod extension?

b.

[bsurvey]

mount it from the underside of the tiller across to the bench seat should work. they make L shaped stainless steel bracket that mounts to the underside of the tiller for this purpose.

tiller master has a actual post that screws into a flange fitting that is through bolted to the deck or bench seat.