Leaderboard

I've had that same setup on quite a number of boats. It's superior and also inexpensive. The nice part is there is no instruction required if you ask somebody to steer and you can nudge the tiller with your feet, shin or whatever to make course corrections.

You can also use a zip top baggie with a corner cut off in place of a frosting bag. I lay the putty in the corner the old fashioned way. A 1/2" wide stick (not rounded off) to apply the putty. Then go over it with a rounded one the diameter I want. Then a quick run along each side with a putty knife to remove the putty that smears out on either side. For me it all goes quicker than messing with a bag.

That's how I've done my tiller tamers for years. I use small diameter non stretch line attached under each inwale with a snap hook so I can remove it if I want to. It then loops through an eye bolt under the tiller and is controlled by shockcord attached to another snap hook. The tension is adjustable with the shockcord in a V cleat. The beauty of this system is that you can always override it as its just friction holding the tiller but you can set the resistance to match the conditions. I first saw this in a book about cruising around England in the 1930's. They didn't have sh

Todd— earlier, you were discussing tiller locks. This is the one I plan to add to my boat. The original idea comes from the Roger Barnes videos. This guy figured it out, and made this video. iI tbi k I’d add a bit of shock cord to ti, however.

I went skiing ⛷ early this morning for a couple hours on a first sunny day in many weeks (it is about 8 degrees... “fresh”) 😁. Then, it was time for me to “punch in” with The Wheezer across the street. I assisted her for a couple hours this afternoon installing four of six outwale/gunwale strips (two layers on each side.) With left over thickened epoxy we made an initial small fillet on the underneath joint of gunwale and side. We’ll do the third strip-layer later in the build. A productive day. I find that the Spindrift 10 is becoming a very cute looking little boa

If Graham said lower the sails, I believe he meant lower them on the mast, as in release the halyard a little and take up on the down haul. Certainly there comes a point where reefing is the answer. It also helps if you sheet out and/or bear off a little for speed right before tacking. If you tack while trying to recover from a header you are almost assured of failure.

I had some difficulty getting to wind in my 17. Mine is a Mark I, meanings the original design with no cabin and no water ballast. Wind was 20-25, estimated, with waves about 2 feet. I try to estimate conservatively. I asked Graham for some advice, and here is a summary of the Old Master's response, with my comments in (parens). I'm trying to summarize accurately, but I invite Graham to jump in if I misstate or omit. As the breeze freshens, first tighten the snotters to flatten and depower the sails. Then "lower" (assume he means reef) the sails "as much as I can get away wit