Tiller extentions

Teeftie

New Member
I have looked through a lot of old threds but there hasn't been a lot of talk about tiller extentions. what do you guys use and how long? let hear it all
 
Carbon Fiber golf club shaft 45" long with a urethane universal joint. Total cost was less then $20.00
Scott
 
Fatso tiller extension - carbon fibre with UJ for £80.00 (i use this one cos thats what the boat came with from laser in the XD package)
http://www.lasersailing.com/uk/shop/product.php?id=93&bt=1&prtCdeBtn93.x=40&prtCdeBtn93.y=1

Rooster carbon fibre - choice of two diameters, 1.25 m in length, as used by steve cockerill and ben ainslie in the finn! £60.00 (personally my choice when or if i break my current one which is very unlikely! go for smaller diameter at 22mm)
http://www.roostersailing.com/merch...de=1&Product_Code=lrce22&Category_Code=lpcarb

nite stick tiller extension carbon as well from special carbon manufacturer! really good stuff choice of lengths!
http://c2marine.co.uk/aspbite/articles/articles.asp?intArticlesID=9

look around, they're all carbon fibre and all bloody strong! but look for your price! i dont know what the maximum length allowed by the laser class assosciation is!
 
Have used:
42" aluminum extension as supplied by Vanguard on 2002 boats - too short, grip slips
42" Fatso Jr. (was given to me for free by friend) nice grip, too short
48" Fatso Jr - currently using, good grip, good length for me, allows me to steer while kneeling forward of daggerboard.
48" Fatso - waiting to try this out, think I might like the slightly bigger diameter.

I like the cast off golf shaft idea Go Dad mentions - Scott, were you able to find a shaft that was big enough in diameter to accept the universal without modification ? If not, can you explain how you adapted the universal to the shaft ?

If you are in the market for a new Fatso in the US, Svendsens seems to have the best price right now ($60)
Fatso at Svendsen
 
I purchased the Carbon golf shaft at a golf store for $9.95, their cheapest, and a grip for $1.95, again their cheapest. The universal cost $7.99 at West Marine. I used a small piece of reinforced plastic tubing to conect the two as the golf shaft is too small to directly connect to the universal. The tubing is connected to the shaft and universal with a small screw through each and finished off with shrink wrap over the whole connection. With the shrink wrap you don't need to through bolt the connections as the wrap keeps the screws in. It looks very clean and works great. It's stiff (get the stiff flex if you have a choice) and light and not too big to allow you to hold the main sheet and tiller extention in one hand easily.
scott
 
I used a "SailingInternational" 125 cm (48") long and 19mm diameter carbon extension (and same brand tiller) for the past five years. I finally broke the extension last weekend. Inadvertantly. Totally stupid to destroy the last specimen of a great design on earth! I'm now replacing it with a 22m dia RoosterSailing carbon extension, 125 cm in length.

The 22mm dia version is easier to hold than the 25mm version when you transfer the sheet to the tiller hand. The Rooster extension is specially textured and has a great non-slip feel.

SG
 
All of this talk about carbon tiller extensions and so forth... I've been using the same alluminium tiller extension that came with my 1987 worlds boat, i wouldn't be surprised if it's the original. i've sat on it and bent it every way possible, and it's still going strong. Seriously, this is Laser sailing.. do we really need carbon equipment?
 
well, carbon tillers are a must, but ive found that the good old ronstan battlestick is good enough for a tiller
 
Well, if it's a must, then i'll have to get with the times. Here's a trick for you guys, I learnt this one from my old 420 skipper.
If you've got any 49er sailors at your club you would have noticed by now that the boat shed gets filled with their broken bits and pieces. See if they've got any broken tiller extensions, as a piece of snapped 49er tiller extension is more than long enough for a full sized laser extension. Just ask them nicely and maybe they'll either donate the piece of carbon to you, it's no use to them anymore.
It looks like i'll have to do this, or otherwise next time my Dad goes to play golf he'll notice he's missing the shaft to his King Cobra no.1 driver.
 
Murphs said:
well, carbon tillers are a must, but ive found that the good old ronstan battlestick is good enough for a tiller


Why are carbon tillers a must? I understand the "keeping the weight out of the ends" thing. Other than that what advantage do the carbon tillers have?
 
they dont bend, (speaking from experience here) ive bent quite a few original aluminium tillers this season and once you do a few of those.... the carbon isnt as expensive.

but i have heard they break in extreme cases..... but then again your aluminium tiller would be in a 'L' shape by then
 
Carbon Fiber? Aluminum? I stick with the classic - wood. My '79 still has a stock wooden tiller. I recently grafted a Vanguard aluminum Sunfish extension onto it (hey, it was in the basement...). The tiller still works great, the extension, less so. The Vanguard grip has a bad habit of slipping off at just the wrong moment. But given that I just dropped the big bucks on a new Rooster mainsheet and mainsheet block this spring, I don't think I'll be putting anything carbon on the boat this season!
 
Murphs said:
they dont bend, (speaking from experience here) ive bent quite a few original aluminium tillers this season and once you do a few of those.... the carbon isnt as expensive.

but i have heard they break in extreme cases..... but then again your aluminium tiller would be in a 'L' shape by then

The boat I just bought came w/a bent tiller. Looked liek someone wedged it between something as it had a "kink" where the bend was. That said, what are some situations that can occur to cause a tiller to bend? One that comes to mind is a nasty capsize, but other than that what else?
 
I bent an alluminum one when I was doing a roll tack. I was on port then I tacked and flung the boat over and when I jumped to the starboard side to prevent the boat from going over I was hiked was out and my tiller extension was resting on the rail of the boat. So when my body and my hand when futher down, the extension did too and it bend it quite nicely.
 
i bent the stock 80's laser one when another boat ran sideways into my rudder, somehow the tiller ended up in that good old "L" shape, those things were pretty crappy, i have bent a lot of the aluminum "fasttack" sticks those seem to be pretty low quality also
 
Is it possible that everyone is getting mixed up here. Rob B asked why carbon TILLERS are a must and Murphs replied because they don't bend....

I can't say I have even bent an aluminum tiller except for a homemade one built from a soft and thin piece of aluminum I got from the local hardware store. I've used lacross sticks and the current Vanguard aluminum tiller in 30+ of wind without bending those. The main reason I like the carbon tiller over the aluminum or wood though is it's low profile allows the traveller to be just a little tighter, which in turn ensures the block goes right out the traveller eyes when sheeted on, and also ensures the block is as low as possible, allowing max leech tension when sheeted on. Between that and a good clew tie down, I think you are looking at 1/2" to 1" more of leech tension.
 
My allumium tiller has a slight bend in it from tight traveller tension, but it's nothing to worry about. I do admit, the old 'Performance' tiller extensions from the 80's are really bad, that's what I use, and in one of my prior posts I said that it has been bent in almost every direction.... but if they can be bent one way they can be bent the other, so I just keep straightening it over an over again. But hey, it's got some character to it now :cool:
 

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