Tiller Play & Autopilot

[koopa]

Hello,

On my 30ft monohull I have tiller steering that can be flipped up out of the way. This mechanism means it's built in a way that it has quite a bit of play or a "deadzone" in it before biting on the rudder. However, this seems to make steering with the tiller autopilot a mess under certain conditions (dead downwind, or motoring, mostly).

How much play is normal for the Tiller? I could remove two hatted washers from the tiller fitting to make it really tight (this would also cause the metal to grind agains the rudder joint/axle a bit of course) -- this would also cause flipping it up/down a bit more stiff -- not sure how long this will last before it wears down and I need to start tightening it regularly -- thoughts?

Thanks~

[thomm225]

Mine has zero play and my boat is 50 years old.

You cannot have a lot of mainsail up downwind though with a tiller pilot if the wind is up. The boat will keep trying to round up.

Tiller pilot has the helm with winds to 29 knots in the first video. You can hear the tiller pilot correcting the boat's position at the start of the video if you have your volume up.

2nd video much calmer day.

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

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

[koopa]

thanks that's good info I will try to tighten (even if I might have to remove the original indented washers that seems to be designed to keep it from being tightened all the way) it and see how it goes -- mine was built in 1981

[thinwater]

My tiller flips up, but properly adjusted, there is no play. I'd play with the spacers.

[koopa]

thanks , seems yours is also utilizing nylon washers a bit — now im confident having it tight is correct