No drawing?

Maybe I'm lazy or just have my rudders set wrong, but I only have slight windward helm upwind, and almost neutral off the wind.

In light winds, I have left the tiller unattended for up to a minute and it tracked straight. Only when big changes in sail trim were made did it turn the boat.

I also stick it under my leg in big air when yanking on downhaul or helping set the spin.

Having been washed off (or fallen off) more times than I'd like to admit (trap line breaks, wave washes crew off, etc.), I'll side with the previous poster that I try to maintain a deathgrip on the mainsheet or some other part of the boat. These things move too fast to become detached for any length of time. Just by hanging on and dragging in the water should eventually make the boat round up or flip over.

I'm phobic and deadly serious about this! If I MUST use both hands, I hold the sheet in my teeth!

On the lightest and most idyllic days, I often lay the sheet across a bare leg, but only with all the slack worked out. If my reaction time to releasing the mainsheet is greater than my reaction time for braking my car, I consider the boat out of control.

I have been thinking about this also for sometime but I agree it can and would be dangerous for the reasons below.

1. You fall off - boat sails away, maybe/probably.
2. You tether yourself to the boat with a line - you get dragged and potentially drowned in the process.

I am thinking of somehow engineering the tiller so that if its 5 to 10 degrees above the deck, ie held in your hand, it locks some sort of friction mechanism. If you fall off the tiller returns to the deck due to gravity and unlocks or puts your rudders in a slight turn....

Sorry, I'm a design engineer and can't stop the brain...

Now I can't see any simple way of doing this yet but I will tinker away. Any thoughts on this idea???

Don't know if this will help:

http://www.jsward.com/steering/index.shtml

The ignition key for my outboard has a spring line that is (supposed to be)attached to my vest.

I forgot to mention an important point with this type of device, that you only need to cup the tiller in your arm to lock it and therefore leaving both hands free for main sheet, or whatever you wish to do with them.

I have an idea which I will draw up and post sometime next week.

The only problem with this is if the line gets tangled around anything at all you could get dragged out to sea... There are alot more rods, brackets and ropes etc for a life line to tangle on a cat.

Dammit, I'm really tired... sorry.

The only problem with this is if the line gets tangled around anything at all you could get dragged out to sea... There are alot more rods, brackets and ropes etc for a life line to tangle on a cat.

I really like the idea of "extending" the tiller to the front cross bar. Even for us non-racers it would be very convienient. And it is mostly hidden under the tramp and out of the way. The best part is it is simple and easy to rig.

diagram

Thanks, everyone, for the comments.

Phill, I'm very interested in learning more about your system since it is the spi hoists/drops that I am most concerned about. After you mentioned that, I vaguely remebered you describing it in an earlier post, so I went back and found it. You included a photo of the underside of your trampoline with that post.

Very ingenious! I can see why you design boats for a living...

I can't tell from the picture exactly how it's implemented, though. I'm not sure, but it almost looks like you attached two blocks to the underside of your tramp to pull a loop of the spi halyard through and also used a third block attached to a tiller cross bar bungee to "capture" this loop. Did I get that right?

If so, how did you attach the blocks to the underside of the tramp?

Also, did you just attatch other end of the bungee to the center of the tiller cross bar or did you create a "Y" to go to both ends of the tiller cross bar?

If I've got this all wrong, than a diagram would really help.

BTW, on your photo, what's that other yellow line running uncer the tramp from front to back?

Thanks!

Jerry

IMHO that is exactly what you want. Mine is more or less neutral but that is probably because I try to stear the boat a lot with balance and sail trim too. If there is a lot of helm one way or another something is usually wrong.



Hehehe it's kinda like falling off a motor bike. The more you slide off the back, the faster you make it go

Tiger Mike

I have wanted to add my two cents worth of knowlege, advice, and experience to this topic but, I can't seem to keep my thoughts "on topic," so I think I will start a new thread to reduce the risk of being fingered as a thread hijacker.

Please see the thread
Parking your Cat
and tell me what you think!

GARY

Jerry,
The blocks are just sewn to the tramp by hand. I used blocks that you would rivet to a flat surface and sewed thru the rivet holes. The bungee goes thru a saddle in the centre of the rear beam to the centre of the cross arm.
For Tony FX1- the link to the previous post is
http://www.catsailor.com/forums/sho...amp;Main=32979&Search=true#Post33008

The spinnaker halyard cleat is mounted on the tramp. This way the line can go under the main beam and thru hole in tramp. I didn't want the cleat on the main beam.(keeping it all away from the self tacker.)
The yellow line comes from this cleat and just transfers the load from the spi halyard to the rear beam.

Regards,
Phill

Thanks, Phill for the clarification.

So are the blocks which are sewn to the tramp small pivoting (hinged) blocks (like the kind mounted veritcally on masts) instead of cheeck blocks?

Jerry

WOW this is amazing,I am new here but i have been trying to figure this whole thing out for sometime (refering to falling off the boat while solo sailing) I have tried to very hard to figure out where my boat would go if I fell off for ANY reason, i do this by letting go off the tiller and various angles to the wind, so my results are never the same, but one thing for sure is if im not headed up my boat will keep sailing without me on it... and at quite a rapid rate even in lite winds. this really concerns me, and often times keeps me from "going on the wire" as im concearned about losing my boat. you see I sail in a logoon surrounded on one side by white beaches, but the other side is coral reef the two sides paralelle each other, so if i fall off, my boat is either going to beach (COOL) or going to the reef (VERY VERY NOT COOL), so depending on my tack i either feel comfortable or I dont.. I HATE IT! I too keep my mainsheet in my hand at all times as the wind here in Saipan is VERY gusty and shifty, Im not sure if my rudders are set correctly, but i do know that when the kick up the boat goes to wind, so I always imagine if I fall off alls i need to do is grab one rudder on the way down and my boat would go to wind, but whats always on my mind is what if I miss the rudder,
however I want to thank you all for contributing to this thread, I actually thought that I WAS THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD WITH THIS FEAR, and it is very conforting to know that there are other people out there contimplating the same problem that I have..thank you and I look very forward to receiveng your ideas and solutions to our fear of falling off the boat and crashing your boat into a reef or worse yet a small boat filled with people..
thank you
regards,
Darrell

Back in the day, most Hobie sailors would tweak the weather helm on their 16s by redrilling the TOP hole on the rudder. By relocating that hole, you can increase or decrease the amount of weather helm. From what you describe, sounds like you have neutral helm.

Redrilling was a "fix" from back in the day. There is probably a "bolt on" item by now. In any case, why not start a new thread asking for safety and tuning advice, there is more know how out there than you really want to know!

In the mean time, when things get hairy, consider trailing a knotted line behind the boat. Not good for performance, but at least you'd have something to grab in a life threatening situation.