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I finally have my steering (mostly) rigged up. As usual I didn't do it according to the plans. It all appears to be working more or less OK. The lash-up shown is just temporary. I still need to attach the steering rope to the steering shaft and tiller properly.

One question though - my tiller has a saw cut in the middle of it (see last picture). My intention is to glue in a shim of wood and put a bolt through to hold everything in place. Should that be strong enough? To attach the tiller ropes I have a metal plate that I'm going to screw onto the bottom of the tiller so there shouldn't be too much force on the split. Also, because of how I attached my eye-bolts, the rudder sits back from the boat about 2" farther than designed. Do I need to compensate for this in any way?

Couple things to consider. Most issues with the steering come from slack in the line and/or slippage on the steering shaft. Ideally you would clamp a loop to the steering shaft to hold it then have a turn and a half on either side of the clamp for the line to play out one way or the other.

Next inline seems to be splitting or breaking of the tiller itself. Mostly that is from grain orientation and how and/or where any fasteners are attached. Running the cord thru a split in the tiller could be a possible weak point. I would run a stainless hose clamp around the split area rather than drilling thru it for a bolt or other fastener which could further weaken the tiller. This is another area where quartersawn hardwood is a preferable choice. One wood could help prevent possible splitting and that is Elm. It has an interlocking grain that is less prone to splitting and is quite strong.

Slack in the line as it stretches is a problem and totally normal, especially with most braided line. Some means of adjusting tension perodically is generally the answer. A single turnbuckle on one side of the tiller shaft makes it easy. A number of builders have pre-stretched the line by various methods. I personally hung it over a rafter and tied a couple cement blocks to it and let it hang for several months. I was amased at how much it actually stretched just hanging. An 8' length of line stretched more than 6 inches in about 6 months. That much less to worry about once installed. The turnbuckle should then take up any slack with ease.

The spacing on the rudder from the main mounts can create an area of turbulence underway which will effect the efficiency of the rudder, especially at low speeds. The smaller this area is the less problematic it becomes. Adding the gills helps a lot, even though it seems that they are out of the water most of the time. You should have no issues with the amount of swing on the tiller. You don't want more than about 30-35 degrees either side of center. Any more than that will just create stalling of the rudder in a hard turn or when tacking.

Hard to tell from the pictures, but I drilled a hole through the shaft and ran the line throug the hole, tying a knot on each side of the shaft to stop slipping. Without it, it only took a very slight slackening of the line and rudder pressure to lose all steering.

With a steel pipe for the steering shaft I don't want to drill a hole in it. I would be concerned about the edges cutting the rope. Much of the inspiration for my steering has come from Phil Gowans http://www.pragdata.com/philboat/ConSteering2.html

I hope to get things pretty much completed today and will post a couple of follow-up pictures. I also need to figure out how to make a steering brake.

This is more like it I think. The fittings are the ones I'm going to go with. I also have a small turnbuckle to tighten the rig and a clamp on the steering shaft to hold the rope in place. The saw cut in the middle of the tiller has been patched as well.


I've got all the pieces for the mast box cut out and fitted. Next weekend I should be fiberglassing and coating all the steering and mast box pieces. Then comes making the bitts, adding the seat stringers (I made a 20" disk to make sure I allow space for the wheel), fiberglassing the hull bottom and then SIDES!

Good thing I'm not planning on being done until next year :?

Andrew,
We are at basically the same point in our builds so I read your posts with great interest. Looks good by the way!!
I am curious why you are fibreglassing the bottom before putting the sides on.
I am about to put the sides on and was planning on covering the bottom and sides with the same piece of fibreglass cloth. (Or at least overlap the join)
I am hoping that excessive use of fibreglass and epoxy will cover for my lack of carpentry skills.
Just curious if I am missing something.

Cheers,
Steven Goodman

Steven:

Sorry for the confusion. I'm referring to fiberglassing the inside (top side?) of the bottom. I'm planning on doing that after I get all the inside stringers etc in place.

Andrew - Thanks for the clarification. I thought I may have made a fatal error (again). I'm sure that as the work progresses, the order of construction becomes less and less standard. I'm lucky enough to be building in my garage, so I will save all the fibreglassing till later.
Thanks for posting pictures, by the way. It sure helps to ease my mind that I'm not putting something together upside down.
I'll put a few more up now that I have figured out how.
Cheers,
Steven.

I've been trying to coat and fiberglass things as I go along and as I can do them flat and right-side up. Doing the underside of the deck seemed to be much easier that way 8) I've been masking off where I glue and am planning on going back to do touch-ups as necessary. I'm going to fiberglass the cockpit and cabin floors etc after putting on the stringers but before the sides.

Just a personal preference I suppose.

Hi Andrew,

Don't know much about the steering set-up, but from what I can see in the photo, you're well on your way to a job well done!