Tiller Pilot

Tiller Pilot
I have had a "tiller pilot" on Snickerdoodle for many years.  On calm days when I want to travel many miles this device is a wonderful tool that steers the boat on a compass course.  The tiller pilot itself secures to a fitting on the tiller (for the actual steering rod) and to a cantilever rod that screws into a little round puck that is secured to the portside coaming.  I have used the tiller pilot many times over the years
A couple years ago, I wanted to use the tiller pilot only to discover that the cantilever rod could not be found.  I looked where the rod was usually stored (portside coaming box) as well as various drawers inside the boat.  All attempts to find the rod were unsuccessful.  And, after several years of trying to find the rod (off and on and taking all of the contents out of drawers and lockers), I have given up and purchased a new rod.  The whole thing came in the mail a few days ago.
When I went out to Snickerdoodle, I found that the new rod did indeed fit in the original puck.  All the threads matched perfectly.

The new rod would need to be cut with a hacksaw to a proper length and a socket with a hole to take the tiller pilot connection needed to be epoxied in place.  The epoxy came with the new rod.

After measuring carefully, I cut the new rod to length and mixed the two-part epoxy.  The epoxy was "fast acting", so I needed to not dilly dally around.  I smeared the end of the rod and the inside of the socket with epoxy and fitted the socket on to the rod.  Then attached the tiller pilot to both tiller and the new socket.  I used some bungee cord to apply pressure to make sure the rod and socket seated together properly and waited 45 minutes.... the instructions said the epoxy would set up in five minutes... but I wanted to make sure.  Everything worked perfectly and Snickerdoodle once again can be steered with the tiller pilot.

Notice that the new rod has been cut to a shorter length than in the previous photo.  The socket is a bit hard to see... but it is there and the whole thing works just right.


BarnacleBillHolcomb@gmail.com