I will just add here that in order to get the friction I used the little fairleads or "Lacing Eye" that are more square and flat, not smooth. They're the ones you use on the MIrror Dinghy. Find them here: www.tridentuk.com/gb/holt-stainless-steel-fairlead-lacing-eye-ht91021.html
Hi Dave - Nice video. :) Balancing the sails and setting up self-steering is *awesome* for being able to get away from the helm to take care of other things while underway. I do that regularly, and it makes an enormous difference to the amount of fun and comfort of my trips! There's a safety thing to consider that comes along with self-steering though: If you are single-handing and become incapacitated or fall overboard, your boat is going to keep right on going without you. A pretty typical solution - and one that I use - is to use a purpose-designed tether to connect yourself to the boat - generally to jack lines or a purpose-installed strong point. My PFD has an integral harness the tether attaches to, so it's pretty simple to use. There are lots of thoughts about that kind of setup, and I encourage you to have a look at what might work for you. I personally prefer a tether that's short enough I literally can't fall out of the boat, even if I'm unconscious. With a longer tether, you'll want to consider options for a boarding ladder / system you can deploy from in the water if necessary. Finally, I find that one of the most important decisions to consider when underway with self-steering rigs of any kind is: Should I stay with snacks, or is it time for lunch? :D Fair winds! -aj
Cheers AJ. Definitely all good advice and I have thought about falling overboard a lot. I think on the Lake its not so bad. She would quickly sail to the shore and just stop, and it's probably not likely she'd hit anyone else but at sea I would definitely tether in. To make matters worse it's hard to go forward but also keeping the outboard key tethered to you so I bought a Life Jacket recently with a tether point on it and have a nice big hook and will be using that on the sea. I htink for me I will eat sandwitchs on the run, snacks on the run but if i'm making anhything more I would probably stop. IN a dinghy it's easy to find a little cove and anchor or to just heave to if you have room.
It's a very basic method, just from playing about and not wanting to go for the more complex version in the DInghy Cruising Handbook. It seems to work though and gives me just enough time to get forward if I have an issue. Even if she still goes off course it's not so violent as just leaving the tiller unmanned.
Haha! Yes its like AI for dinghy's!!! The tiller tamer works really well, however wouldn't it be even more interesting to see if a full Tiller Pilot would work on her.......
A great watch once again. I really am enjoying your journey. I'm really looking forward to my own adventure this year at Studland,and possibly CornwLl! I may try a DCA meet if I'm not working. Great stuff Davd. Thank you for posting.
Many thanks. Let me know when you get sailing and how it goes. I'm hopefully going to be going to a few more DCA and drascombe rally's this year so may even see you at one!
Have you investigated the Prop-walk with your motor? So basically, the direction of turn of the prop will make the turning circle of the boat better in one direction than the other. With my old cruiser, the prop walk pushed the stern to starboard in forward, and to port in reverse, so if we were starboard side to a Jetty, If we tried to leave in forward gear, the stern was constantly pushed against the jetty and it was really hard to leave, but if we reversed out, the prop walk would drag the stern away from the jetty and it was easy to leave: this means that if you are motoring and tie off the tiller straight ahead, the boat will tend to want to turn in one direction or the otherand you will need to compensate by having the tiller slightly off centre. Hope this makes sense!
Hi Robert, no I haven't looked into that because I thought it was only older boats that had that sort of behaviour. I had a bit of a research into it over the weekend and can see now that all props have a degree of prop walk. I feel a new video coming on. Maybe a very still day on the lak would allow me to show that off.
Hi - great video thanks. Is this a home made tamer? Do you have the line running through an eye on the tiller? How do you ensure there is enough friction to keep it from moving on its own?
Yes, you see it clearly at 12:48 it's just a bit of 3mm polyester line. I attach it it to one cleat on the port bow, feed it through a small fairlead under the tiller, I then wrap it rpound the fairlead agian and then tie it off to the S/B cleat. The line is quite tight. The tiller stays in whatever place you put it in. I prefer it this way because with the Mizzen, outboard not ever being quite central and also currents, wind and your course into it, the tiller often needs to be off centre tomaintain a course. It works really well for up to 1 minute, even bobbing about on the boat for quick things. You can also still control the boat manually if you need to.
I will just add here that in order to get the friction I used the little fairleads or "Lacing Eye" that are more square and flat, not smooth. They're the ones you use on the MIrror Dinghy. Find them here: www.tridentuk.com/gb/holt-stainless-steel-fairlead-lacing-eye-ht91021.html
Hi Dave - Nice video. :)
Balancing the sails and setting up self-steering is *awesome* for being able to get away from the helm to take care of other things while underway. I do that regularly, and it makes an enormous difference to the amount of fun and comfort of my trips!
There's a safety thing to consider that comes along with self-steering though: If you are single-handing and become incapacitated or fall overboard, your boat is going to keep right on going without you.
A pretty typical solution - and one that I use - is to use a purpose-designed tether to connect yourself to the boat - generally to jack lines or a purpose-installed strong point. My PFD has an integral harness the tether attaches to, so it's pretty simple to use.
There are lots of thoughts about that kind of setup, and I encourage you to have a look at what might work for you. I personally prefer a tether that's short enough I literally can't fall out of the boat, even if I'm unconscious. With a longer tether, you'll want to consider options for a boarding ladder / system you can deploy from in the water if necessary.
Finally, I find that one of the most important decisions to consider when underway with self-steering rigs of any kind is: Should I stay with snacks, or is it time for lunch? :D
Fair winds!
-aj
Cheers AJ. Definitely all good advice and I have thought about falling overboard a lot. I think on the Lake its not so bad. She would quickly sail to the shore and just stop, and it's probably not likely she'd hit anyone else but at sea I would definitely tether in. To make matters worse it's hard to go forward but also keeping the outboard key tethered to you so I bought a Life Jacket recently with a tether point on it and have a nice big hook and will be using that on the sea.
I htink for me I will eat sandwitchs on the run, snacks on the run but if i'm making anhything more I would probably stop. IN a dinghy it's easy to find a little cove and anchor or to just heave to if you have room.
I enjoyed myself too , watching.Very interesting. I think I will try out your tiller method as well.
It's a very basic method, just from playing about and not wanting to go for the more complex version in the DInghy Cruising Handbook. It seems to work though and gives me just enough time to get forward if I have an issue.
Even if she still goes off course it's not so violent as just leaving the tiller unmanned.
great idea glad it makes the boat more enjoyable , soon Lulu will be going for a sail on her own , Dave not required
Haha! Yes its like AI for dinghy's!!! The tiller tamer works really well, however wouldn't it be even more interesting to see if a full Tiller Pilot would work on her.......
@@SailingWithDave yes I’m waiting for that vid next , I think on the lake the rope version is enough on the sea a proper tiller pilot
A great watch once again. I really am enjoying your journey. I'm really looking forward to my own adventure this year at Studland,and possibly CornwLl! I may try a DCA meet if I'm not working. Great stuff Davd. Thank you for posting.
Many thanks. Let me know when you get sailing and how it goes. I'm hopefully going to be going to a few more DCA and drascombe rally's this year so may even see you at one!
Have you investigated the Prop-walk with your motor? So basically, the direction of turn of the prop will make the turning circle of the boat better in one direction than the other. With my old cruiser, the prop walk pushed the stern to starboard in forward, and to port in reverse, so if we were starboard side to a Jetty, If we tried to leave in forward gear, the stern was constantly pushed against the jetty and it was really hard to leave, but if we reversed out, the prop walk would drag the stern away from the jetty and it was easy to leave: this means that if you are motoring and tie off the tiller straight ahead, the boat will tend to want to turn in one direction or the otherand you will need to compensate by having the tiller slightly off centre. Hope this makes sense!
Hi Robert, no I haven't looked into that because I thought it was only older boats that had that sort of behaviour. I had a bit of a research into it over the weekend and can see now that all props have a degree of prop walk. I feel a new video coming on. Maybe a very still day on the lak would allow me to show that off.
Hi - great video thanks. Is this a home made tamer? Do you have the line running through an eye on the tiller? How do you ensure there is enough friction to keep it from moving on its own?
Yes, you see it clearly at 12:48 it's just a bit of 3mm polyester line. I attach it it to one cleat on the port bow, feed it through a small fairlead under the tiller, I then wrap it rpound the fairlead agian and then tie it off to the S/B cleat. The line is quite tight.
The tiller stays in whatever place you put it in.
I prefer it this way because with the Mizzen, outboard not ever being quite central and also currents, wind and your course into it, the tiller often needs to be off centre tomaintain a course.
It works really well for up to 1 minute, even bobbing about on the boat for quick things. You can also still control the boat manually if you need to.