Sheet to tiller steering

[rob.lovelace]

I copied mine from
http://www.blueanarchy.org/selfsteering/index.html
like this scetch but with shackles at different heights up the lever for strong or light conditions

[Troppo]

In what conditions does self-steering work best? Does it work with a broad reach or running where the waves try and screw the boat around and constant corrections have to be made?

[rob.lovelace]

" the waves try and screw the boat around and constant corrections have to be made"
is why I went to the vane

[Tales]

Sail trim can do quite a lot to make a Top Hat stable.

With a #2 and full main the other day we broad reached for over an hour in 8 to 13 knots with the tiller free.

Last month in Bass Stait in around 15 knots I used the ST2000 switched off on the wind with the sheet slightly sprung - #2 and full main.

Sheet to tiller sounds good though.

Cheers,

Tpm

[Jeremy]

Many of you will know of this method, but some may not....

It's slightly off topic, but I have had a lot of success (on fin and full keel yachts) in self steering upwind by over sheeting the main slightly and tying off the tiller slightly to windward.

I found that the main pushes the boat up, when the boat points too high the main doesnt fill as well as the headsail. The combination of the headsail and rudder pulls the boat to the correct position to the wind. With a tiny bit of fiddling you can get this to work quite efficiently without any sails luffing or even to the point where you wont notice a human isnt on the helm.

Worked offshore in a sloppy sea. Blade jib (fractional rig) with either full or reefed main on my PR25 and no1 and full main on my old Endeavour 24. The boat also will make corrections for wind shifts! Only drawback? it doesnt work in light wind.

The Tophats will probably outperform both of the above classes when it comes to balance.

But then again, a gentleman never sails upwind, which brings us back to the discussion at hand.

Jeremy

[Shaun]

Another great web page with photo's showing "sheet to tiller" steering
http://www.solopublications.com/sailariq.htm

cheers

[Shaun]

Great resource: The excellent book on self steering by John S Letcher, available as a free download on the Jester Info site.
A quote from the linked page: "John Letcher has been very generous and allowed his book to be available for download. This is on the understanding that it is for personal use only. All downloads copyright © John S Letcher jr

http://www.jesterinfo.org/selfsteeringf ... craft.html

cheers

[Arohanui]

Its good aye shaun. Do yourself a favor and get some cam cleats for the tiller. Makes adjusting super easy. Love sheet to tiller and it works great on a th.