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Self-steering

Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2022 6:09 pm
by Andrew
Getting the boat to stay on course by itself. It's something that's often needed, especially when sailing short handed.

Probably 100 ways to skin this cat. Tiller pilots, helm impeders, helm lashing, sail-to-tiller rigs and more

I'm thinking of setting up a DIY helm impeder on Teria. Came across the "Huntingford helm impeder" (HHI) online. Here is a short video of one in action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0vt3_GZCMs

and another with "Dinghy Cruising Companion" reference (bought this book, highly recommended, quite allot of things also applicable to trailer-sailers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTS6IKTVwos (also like his removeable tiller design).

and a good blog page on it https://sarumuse.org/2014/09/21/hunting ... m-impeder/

As a prequel, have setup a Huntington Helm impeder on my 8ft sailing dinghy. Bought most of the fittings, braided cords, shock-cord, snap hooks, ss screws etc at Bunnings (all 316 stainless or hardened plastic, rust proof, fraction of cost of Chandlers, enough for many more HHI's), just needed a small pulley (block) and cleat from marine shop.

From past sails, my dinghy is good at self-steering with basic lashed helm and slip knots to adjust. Hope this new setup takes it to the next level of fine tuning. A proto-type for the I563's hopefully.

Re: Self-steering

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2022 5:18 pm
by Ozzie
Looks like a good setup Andrew. I use bungee but no way to adjust the tension like this .

I remembered after reading your post a link I put up long long ago that I found somewhere

https://www.scribd.com/doc/14218367/Sai ... W-Bligh-RN.

I have never tried it but it’s sure simple enough.
E8E9D6BD-F806-4492-822C-6B7DFF9A8229.jpeg
This was an invention of Captain William Bligh. You can almost here Trevor Howard instructed the crew to build it or be keel hauled.😳

Re: Self-steering

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2022 8:23 pm
by Watto
I absolutely love the tiller clutch.

https://marineoutlet.com.au/products/wa ... h-standard

Re: Self-steering

Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2022 5:13 pm
by Andrew
Ozzie wrote: Thu Sep 08, 2022 5:18 pm Looks like a good setup Andrew. I use bungee but no way to adjust the tension like this .

I remembered after reading your post a link I put up long long ago that I found somewhere

https://www.scribd.com/doc/14218367/Sai ... W-Bligh-RN.

I have never tried it but it’s sure simple enough.

E8E9D6BD-F806-4492-822C-6B7DFF9A8229.jpeg

This was an invention of Captain William Bligh. You can almost here Trevor Howard instructed the crew to build it or be keel hauled.😳
Looks like a good idea worth trying out one day Ozzie, not overly complex or expensive but bit worried about garnering the odd look, it might be an offshore deployment device :D . Captain Bligh was certainly a great seaman, pity about the mutiny on the Bounty and his people skills, the mutineers only got caught after Bligh did the impossible and sailed the open longboat thousands of miles to Bativia. Sure his self-steering sail might work ok.

I've built my second Huntingford helm Impeder (on Teria) today. It was much faster and easier than the first one for the dinghy.

Updated my blog and posted all my Helm Impeder research on there, in 3 posts. Covering the commercial Tiller Clutch/Tiller tamer, some DIY ones and my Huntingford Helm Impeder projects. http://teria563.blogspot.com/search/lab ... %20impeder