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Sailing Rod Stewart

At some time, every boat equipped with a tiller will require some method of securing it in a fixed position when at a mooring so that it does not flop around and place unnecessary wear and tear on the fittings. In addition, it is quite good to have some means of keeping the tiller straight while the tillerman ducks below for a quick cup of tea or something.

Securing the tiller in a stable position while under sail works much better on a long keeled boat with a long waterline length than on a short keeled boat which is built for more speed. Of course if you are buying a boat with a tiller rather than a wheel based steering system you should already have a long keeled boat anyway, for the same reason – that is it will be much more comfortable steering, especially for hours on end.

One thing you could do is to set another anchor so that it sets in the line between your prow and your main anchor. This setup will allow the boat to swing with the wind and tide, but will stop any fear of dragging. By having both anchors in a line, it is easier to pull them both up when it is time to leave.

The simplest method of securing a tiller is to tie it up tightly with a rope to stop it moving around. However these simple lashings are too rigid to use when under sail, and could be hard to disconnect if the seas are rough.

There are tiller clamps available from ship chandleries, which let you connect and disconnect the tiller almost immediately. They attach to a rope fastened across the cockpit, and different positions are selected merely by sliding the clamp to the desired position. These work very well, but you can make your own.

The simplest solution is to wind a rope several times around the tiller, then attach the two free ends of the rope to the stanchions, one on each side of the boat. Thus the tiller is locked in place.

A much more satisfactory method is to introduce a short length of shockcord to the rope on each side of the tiller. You can buy a bungy cord from a discount store, or if you are really cheap, use a part of the inner tube of a bike tyre.

Finally, if the bottom is thick, oozy mud, as in an estuary, a good temporary anchor to use while fishing or having a meal on deck is to stick a pole into the mud and tie your boat up to the pole. You could use the spinnaker pole for this, if you can’t find anything suitable on the shore. You can also use this method to keep the stern away from a riverbank, if you have tied up bow-on to the bank. Remember, this is only for a temporary stay, when people are up on deck and it’s still daylight, not for overnight stays

Resource Author Francisco Rodriguez Higueras
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