emergency tiller?

[limmer]

I have a c&c landfall 43 and it came with the emerg. tiller but for the life of me cant figure out how it would be attached. I have looked in the obvious place like under the aft bed right where the rudder post and auto pilot are. I hope someone can help me with this issue, havnt talked to many people that own this boat but it gives me an uneasy feeling theres no back up steering besides the auto pilot. cheers

[Pblais]

Usually there is an exposed nub near the wheel or an inspection port that removes. The emergency tiller usually attaches to the top of the rudder post.

[Kanani]

Originally Posted by limmer

I have a c&c landfall 43 and it came with the emerg. tiller but for the life of me cant figure out how it would be attached. I have looked in the obvious place like under the aft bed right where the rudder post and auto pilot are. I hope someone can help me with this issue, havnt talked to many people that own this boat but it gives me an uneasy feeling theres no back up steering besides the auto pilot. cheers

If you have no through-deck access, you may want to consider putting one in. It isn't hard. You can purchase a plate at most marine stores. You would just have to have a long rudder post extension made.

I did that on my Passport 45, aft cabin. I even went to the extreme of installing a bronze deck-plate and had a 4" long bushing machined, that I could screw into the threaded cover hole. The rudder shaft went through the hole and down to the rudder (in perfect alignment).

I kept the tiller on permanently and ran my windvane lines to the tiller (instead of the wheel) to relieve stress on my steering cables, improve windvane performance and uncluttered the decks and cockpit. It was brilliant and worked flawlessly for 80,000 miles without a single water leak. I just had to grease the bearing once in awhile.

[limmer]

what im now thinking is that i have the wrong tiller but i will take a pic and post it and hopfully someone has the same set up. kanani i think i read your post on this topic before and it was that post that got me started i just dont know how im going to attach to the rudder post? it looks like im starting from scratch on this one, but i just find it hard to believe that there was nothing for an emerg. tiller from the last owner but we have heard that thread before. cheers any more help would be great.

[Pblais]

Crawl around back in the stern and see if you can feel or see the top of the rudder post. I have to say that Kanani has the perfect setup. Mine has a nub on deck so it is easy to attach to. I can't run the wind vane from it though. The tiller is in sections mounted inside the lid of the lazerette so it easy to grab and install should the steering cables go south.

[Kanani]

Originally Posted by limmer

what im now thinking is that i have the wrong tiller but i will take a pic and post it and hopfully someone has the same set up. kanani i think i read your post on this topic before and it was that post that got me started i just dont know how im going to attach to the rudder post? it looks like im starting from scratch on this one, but i just find it hard to believe that there was nothing for an emerg. tiller from the last owner but we have heard that thread before. cheers any more help would be great.

What is the shape of the top of your rudder post? Mine was square and welding a square socket on the end of a 2" piece of S/S pipe was no big deal.

I have seen more than one aft cabin sailboat that the designer expected the helmsman to steer the boat from down-below. It actually can work. All you would need is a compass and a look-out.

If you have an AP that runs off of the quadrant, that will work to steer the boat as long as it doesn't fail.

Personally, I would feel more comfortable with the emergency tiller top-side.

[limmer]

thats good to hear because i think that the intention is for the helmsman to steer from the aft cabin just by looking at the tiller ie no extension. i thought i was crazy because that just seems stupid. so now looking a little closer it looks like the auto pilot hydraulics is mounted to an arm thats is then mounted right on the top of the rudder post which im guessing is where the tiller woud have went. now i guess i just find a way to mount the tiller to the top of this arm? so on another note can welding be done to these parts in place or is it a better idea to remove and weld because there not a space issue? but i do know there are always problems when welding to parts that are grounded together.

[Kanani]

Originally Posted by limmer

thats good to hear because i think that the intention is for the helmsman to steer from the aft cabin just by looking at the tiller ie no extension. i thought i was crazy because that just seems stupid. so now looking a little closer it looks like the auto pilot hydraulics is mounted to an arm thats is then mounted right on the top of the rudder post which im guessing is where the tiller woud have went. now i guess i just find a way to mount the tiller to the top of this arm? so on another note can welding be done to these parts in place or is it a better idea to remove and weld because there not a space issue? but i do know there are always problems when welding to parts that are grounded together.

I think that I would try re-mounting your A/P to the quadrant by drilling and tapping a hole directly through the quadrant itself (if possible). A picture would be good.

The emergency tiller should be able to be mounted directly to the top of the rudder shaft. If someone mounted the A/P arm on there, that was pretty irresponsibe.

I wouldn't do any welding to the rudder shaft itself. S/S has a habbit of warping when you weld it. Way to risky IMO.