Folkboats Around the World
IF drawing International Folkboat
Tech Tips

Tiller Extension
Grace, Ken Kurlychek


I do the majority of my sailing alone and therefore self-steering devices and methods are of great interest to me. Last year, I used a plastic thing that clamped down on a line that ran from on corner of the aft deck to the other. This device worked well the first few weeks but weakened over time. It also failed to hold the line down if the wind went over 13 knots or so. I didn't expect much from it and was not surprised by the letdown. This year I purchased a replacement tiller extension from Forespar along with the "pocket" that the ball end fits into. On wider boats, the pocket is intended to be installed into the coaming. On the slim IF, it had to go a bit further outboard. So, I cut some heavy duty plastic to mount the pocket into and attached the whole thing to my horseshoe life ring holder.

tiller extension This arrangement works pretty well. I can get about 30 to 60 seconds of free time to go forward before I have to return to the helm. The time varies on the condtions. It holds a true course much longer when motoring. When not in use, I snap the extension down into a plastic clip screwed into the top of the tiller.

In September of 1998 I purchased a Navico 200CX Tiller Pilot which I am very happy with but, being electronic, it is susceptible to failure or lack of juice. The Forespar Tiller extension with pocket is pretty foolproof although hardly a substitute for the 200CX for any long distance cruising.

[ home ]