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Intending to extend my tiller.


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Extending the tiller should make sailing more comfortable as will be able to hold the tiller with fully extended arm rather than having to hold it with a bent arm. Should also make the tiller feel a bit lighter due to more mechanical advantage which will be good as I like to make her work hard whenever another yacht is in sight. She can carry a lot of sail up to about 25 knots of wind without heeling too much but the helm gets a bit heavy so a longer tiller should help. She's a 32 foot, 11 foot beem, 10 ton, double ender with a full keel.

What I wonder is if I can just splice a couple of feet onto the end of the tiller or should I make a new one?

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I made new tillers for a cat by epoxy gluing tanalised ply together to get the right thickness then cutting shaping sealing and painting,easy cheap very strong and won,t rot. A splice onto the existing could work though it may be a weak spot.

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Thanks exTL,

I thought to use Jarrah as I've got a nice chunk of the stuff in the shed. I thought to make the splice about 450mm long and extend about that too. The only real negative I can think off is the crew might get crushed by the tiller but I usually sail short handed so not too much of a problem.

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Already taken care of Squid, tiller goes through the "cheeks " on the rudder and one bolt holds it in. But hey i hadn't even thought to remove it when on the hook. Its a big grunty thing, out of something like 6 x 2.

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12:1 will be easy to get maybe more. I think I'll scarf it and maybe put a 10 by 10 mm key in the joint just in case it gets too hot for the epoxy. Better sharpen my plane and tear into a bit of Jarrah. Thanks for the great suggestions. I'll try this and see how it goes if I don't get on with it I can try a hinged version or an extension later. If I can reduce the effort maybe the "Admiral" won't keep shouting at me to reduce the sail. :D

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Yes all good, went out today and had a ball. Eased the effort required on the tiller considerably. Its 500mm longer. All the other stuff I've been mucking about with is all good too, tillerpilot works with the nmea from garmin handheld and the furuno fishfinder is getting the nav. data as well. Yee hah..............................................

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