Fitting the Tiller

For many years I have had a beautiful tiller from our family's boat from my childhood. We owned her in the 1950's and '60's, but the boat and tiller probably dated from before the War. It would be a pleasure to put the tiller back in service on Tugga Bugga, and in any case it is much finer than anything I can make.  Furthermore, I see problems with the tiller on Chappelle's plans: the illustration at the top of the page shows what I mean. It may be okay for tending a crabbing trot line, but it sticks way up in the air, can't pivot up and down, and is too short to reach from the main thwart.  I think I can solve all those problems with the pretty old tiller, so a little work to make it fit is well worthwhile. This will be my only significant deviation from the plans.

When I was finishing the spars I also refinished the old tiller, with six coats of new varnish.

The old tiller was made to fit into a bronze bracket over the rudder post. But the new boat has a "barn-door" rudder, so the tiller needs to extend another two feet aft past the pintles, the rudder's pivot point. My solution is to make a piece to fit over the top of the rudder and fit the old tiller into that piece. I bought a nice plank of hardwood for the new piece, but before cutting it up I decided to make a prototype out of cheap scrap wood, and that was today's project. Here is the result:

The tabs at the top of the rudder will be trimmed off.

Most of the work was cutting the inside taper to fit the existing tiller. Now I have a pattern to make the real piece, which will be a dark hardwood to complement the old tiller.

I left the deck alone to cure today. By Friday or Saturday I can scrub off any surface blush and start sanding and fairing.

Tomorrow, time and weather permitting, I'll make the rub rails.