tie tiller down when at dock

[Jenneau Owner]

Lots of good advice given already. My first boat, which is still the love of my life, had a tiller which I would tie off using a clovehitch.

I now have a twin wheel boat and still tie off the wheels when at anchor or moored up. It never ceases to amaze me ( I am in Greece) when I see unattended charter boats at anchor swinging around in the breeze with the wheels violently rotating from side to side.

Enjoy your new boat and sailing.

[argonauta1]

Might as well use this thread to mention dinghy (tillers) outboard protocol at dinghy docks. Most thoughtful cruisers leave the motor down to avoid damage to other dinghies and to minimize needed space.

[sailorladd]

I use two lines, port and starboard of the tiller (towards the open end) which are permanently mounted in the cockpit coaming as they will be used while sailing as well, and the bitter ends of these lines are tied to some stout shock cord to give the tiller a bit of movement if a wave were to pass under or whatever... it just softens the shock... and of course the tiller is tied in the center position of the cockpit...

[dbraymer]

Finally a good simple question which will get some reasonable answers. First you are centering the rudder, not just tying it down willy-nilly. If you tie it down off center, the vessel will twist clockwise in one current, and then counter in the reverse current. Even with no tide or even no prevailing current being present, wave motion and wind push water past a boat as well.

With the tiller centered, you will get the least wear and tear on the lines and the least amount of banging of the hull against anything solid, should the lines give away slack.

Do not go cheap, and do not worry that it doesn't look so neat and tidy in the cockpit. Boaters with experience will first chuckle and then admire your contraption, if it gets the work done.

You want to look for something that is easy to tie to and exceedingly solid both port and starboard, placed appropriately per the handle area of the tiller (or wheel spoke, if you not have a trusty wheel brake)

Go ahead and fashion some kind of tight collar of leather or something similar, and then wrap it with something that will not wear upon the tiller handle. The line ends can have loops that you can drop over winches or cleats, after you stretch the line for tension.

We learned this the hard way running a sailing club where the vessels were subject to serious tidal flows. We actually had some steering parts broken on wheeled vessels where the brake was not set fully by patrons after returning the vessels.