Tiller and neck pain

[thomm225]

I'm usually on autopilot with a couple minutes after I leave my slip so I can go forward and raise sail.

About the only time I'm steering is docking and just before anchoring unless i just feel like driving for a while

You can hear the ST2000 Raymarine Autopilot on the third video at the start if your audio is up high enough. My Simrad TP10 was much louder

I do wish I had room on the stern for a wind vane AP though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejcp-rCYz3U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3I2zc0_7wY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agtdrmAqojs

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by fretbrner

Sorry, I guess that came out wrong about serious cruising. I should have said blue water cruising, as I would expect someone who is fulltime would be considered serious. I meant where you could go a week or more before you see any land, from what I am told it can take around 4 to 5 days to get from Sydney to Lord Howe Island and nothing but the ocean blue in between.

Sadly, I don't plan to sail the ICW anytime soon, as I am on the east coast of Australia and not the US.

I would have autopilot and hopefully a windvane to take up much of the steering duties, but as mentioned, might be in a situation where I would have to rely on manual steering for hours.

You can also steer by simply pushing the port and starboard buttons on your electric autopilot.

I do this sometimes when I get back in my creek as I'm sailing to my marina

I'm usually forward dropping the main at the same time or having my I'm home beer and enjoying the calmer water

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by coastalexplorer

I have always thought that tiller steering was used for racing because it makes going about for windward sailing faster and more efficient? typical length over five Feet.

That may be true in the US where looking 'Salty' at the wheel counts, but this side of the Pond tillers are bog standard and wheels only exist on centre cockpits and ketches.
KISS..

[TrentePieds]

Quote: "...stand with tiller between legs.. My favourite when tacking as I can handle the jib sheets while the main looks after itself."

Blimey, Boatie! You must be as old as I am :-). Doing just that is how we were "officially" taught to do it way, WAY before every lubber had to become a sailorman!

Cheers!

TP

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

Quote: "...stand with tiller between legs.. My favourite when tacking as I can handle the jib sheets while the main looks after itself."

Blimey, Boatie! You must be as old as I am :-). Doing just that is how we were "officially" taught to do it way, WAY before every lubber had to become a sailorman!

Cheers!

TP

[TrentePieds]

Supplementary for the OP:

Having grown inured to the god-forsaken wheel steering in TP, and having grown far too old to make the cost of a conversion to tiller worthwhile, I'd forgotten about a device harking back to the days of working sail: The "tiller comb"! This device permitted the helmsman to put a slight bias on the tiller to hold course against a slight weather helm, or to induce and hold a steady rate of turn while coming through stays or wearing.

There were two kinds. The one was indeed a "comb". I consisted of a plank laid thwartships about at mid-length of the tiller. Sticky-up pegs were set in the plank like the teeth of a coarse comb so the tiller could be swung up, laid over and then dropped into the gap between the apposite pair of pegs to maintain the rate of turn. Maneuver completed, the tiller was lifted again, brought midships and dropped there, and the vessel was then balanced via the sail trim.

The fancy "yotty" version was a bronze segment instead of a comb. In the tiller was a pin rather like a belaying pin, that could be dropped into holes in the segment when desired. Very slick.

I KNOW I'm getting old and grumpy, but so much of what is considered essential in modern cruising yots is merely "solutions" to non-existent problems :-)!

TP

[Scaramanga F25]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

For offshore, you likely will use the autopilot the vast majority of the time with either system.

It's if you do something like run the ICW that you may be at the tiller for hours at a time and that could be multiple days in a row. Yes, constantly craning your neck around 90 degrees will likely leave it sore.

Define "serious cruising" for us. We've never really done the offshore thing but we've ran thousands of miles while full time cruising. does that make us "serious". (not being sarcastic just needing clarification on the question)

No, in the Intracoastal you will use the buttons on your tllermaster. Long straight stretches too. I have done both, offshore and ICW for many many years. KISS. Even on my 36, I had a tiller. Only reason to have a wheel and its foibles is when I owned a center cockpit ketch. Fluid failure offshore and had to use my steel emergency tiller.

[Djarraluda]

As I got older, mainly cruising Pittwater and Hawkesbury I found the tiller resulted in more discomfort to my lower back. As such, I upgraded boat 28 to 34 ft and chose a wheel with below deck autopilot. No regrets, but it does relate to your style and boat size. I like hand steering and the old Compass 28 was easiest to steer from leeward so I could watch telltales in the ever changing winds close to shorelines. Offshore, the tillerpilot did the work.
So for cruising, 32 ft boat. My preference would be Tiller but with wind bane steering and an under deck autopilot in lieu of the tillerpilot.
Roger

[RobertoD]

The preponderance of wheels on sailboats these days, even on boats well under 30 ft, is because of marketing and trying to get novice sailors to buy boats. Same goes for "Condo" style heads taking up space well beyond their potential use, and in the wrong place. It is all marketing - wide large super yachts and larger racing boats have dual wheels to get the skippers out to the side of the boat so they can see where they are going, see the waves, and see sail trim. With a center wheel you can't do that, unless you sit on the coaming and steer with one hand. But it looks so "racy" and professional - particularly on a boat that seldom leaves the dock. TP 52 class racing boats mostly have tillers. Open 40 Class boats have tillers. My last 2 boats came with wheels, even a 33 footer (Originally tiller - previous owner installed wheel). I am even considering how to change the original wheel on my C&C 37 to a tiller?? Better control , more direct control, easier to sail properly. And more cockpit space. Particularly easier for single handing. Of six boats owned, last two came with wheels - UGGG.
And yes, I have done considerable racing on larger boats with wheels, and large racing crews to trim sails and give wave and wind info to the helm. But cruising - give me a tiller.

[thomm225]

I will never understand why someone would want wheel steering on a boat say under 33'.

It takes up lots of the cockpit on boats that size.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

Supplementary for the OP:

Having grown inured to the god-forsaken wheel steering in TP, and having grown far too old to make the cost of a conversion to tiller worthwhile, I'd forgotten about a device harking back to the days of working sail: The "tiller comb"! This device permitted the helmsman to put a slight bias on the tiller to hold course against a slight weather helm, or to induce and hold a steady rate of turn while coming through stays or wearing.

There were two kinds. The one was indeed a "comb". I consisted of a plank laid thwartships about at mid-length of the tiller. Sticky-up pegs were set in the plank like the teeth of a coarse comb so the tiller could be swung up, laid over and then dropped into the gap between the apposite pair of pegs to maintain the rate of turn. Maneuver completed, the tiller was lifted again, brought midships and dropped there, and the vessel was then balanced via the sail trim.

The fancy "yotty" version was a bronze segment instead of a comb. In the tiller was a pin rather like a belaying pin, that could be dropped into holes in the segment when desired. Very slick.

I KNOW I'm getting old and grumpy, but so much of what is considered essential in modern cruising yots is merely "solutions" to non-existent problems :-)!

TP

Hot Damn.. You are as old as me..

[qwert]

Never really understood the logic of a wheel when the the weather turns damp. There you are standing heroically at the back of the boat facing all that nature can throw at you,dripping, freezing, wishing you were anywhere else...........or.............you could be sitting under the dodger ,warm and dry in carpet slippers, with your tiller in your hand.


As for the neck pain you just balance the sails to give a little weather helm then run a length of elastic from the lifelines to the tiller and hey presto.....fingertip control.

[StuM]

See my Avatar - That's me tiller steering on day 3 of a passage.