Gary Nelson, C400 #207, Reve

Emergency Tiller

I always wondered how you would operate the emergency tiller that came with the boat. I came up with this idea without spending a lot of money and I did not want to use pins or bolts as they always roll out the transom into the water.There is a brass hook at the bottom that you hook to the bolt holding the tiller up and a rope is fed up though the posts over the top to a cleat on the side of the post to keep it from popping up and out of the tiller. There is a short 2 inch aluminum extension I got from the scrap yard for $10 to raise the height to clear the wheels. (Reve has the bigger wheels.) I used the 1 inch handle that came with the kit but cut off the 45 degree bend it is also secured with a rope. The 3/4 inch PVC pipe is attached to the stern rails with the PVC tees in such a way as to still be able to use the stern ladder. (They could be replaced with S/S tubing.) I had to make the triangle piece so the white bushing would not rotate. The setup is very stiff and it all still fits in the red bag.
PVC tees are lashed to the rail with rope and tied of to the cleats.
The triangle was added to keep the 3/4 inch PVC from rotating. The four holes sit on top over the bolts.
The shiny S/S tubing that is used as a connecting pin can be the piece that is cut off the original handle that was bent at a 45 degree angle. The brass snap hook is clipped on to the cross bolt that holds the rudder up where the shaft is slotted at the bottom and goes to the top of the two pipes and tied off at the cleat on the side of the post. Make sure you mount the cleat to line up with the handle. The Nylock bolts that bolt the flat bar to the PVC pipe facing up the triangle piece with the holes sits on top of the PVC and is tied onto the PVC pipe to keep it from rotating. I may modify this with a 1 inch piece of starboard sandwiched between another triangle on the bottom.