Carbon Laser Tiller

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PUROLIO

New Member
I am planning on buying a carbon tiller for my boat. I have seen the Windesign, Acme and Rooster carbon tillers however I am not sure which one of these is the best buy (regardless of their price).
Are there any other good options in the market for carbon tillers?
 
I personally haven't used the Acme tiller but I have the WinDesign and it works really well for me. The Rooster tiller was alright, but not as good as the WinDesign, when I borrowed my friends the traveler was always getting caught on it during tacks.
 
PUROLIO said:
... I have seen the Windesign, Acme and Rooster carbon tillers however I am not sure which one of these is the best buy (regardless of their price). ...
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Hi
From the brochure of Optiparts, the "Windesign"-carbo-tiller looks similar to the so called "XD-Tiller", that is sold by the officially-licensed Laserstores here in Europe. It's the actual "VW-Beetle"-carbo-tiller (It's not a "Ferrari-Maranello", but for the money it did cost me at ebay, it works fine) under the carbo-tillers is my opinion.
To me, it seems to be a sort of philosopical view, if to take an ACME or carbon-tiller of Roostersailing. Some say the ACME is the best and others "swear on" their carbo-tiller of Roostersailing.

PUROLIO said:
... Are there any other good options in the market for carbon tillers?
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Yes.

Some months ago, I orderd a carbo-tiller of "Dynamic-Composites" at Christchurch/NZL. They offer a carbo-tiller called "KIWI-Tiller". It has a special roller, that allowes the traveller-control-line to move nearly frictionless to that tiller and has really a low weight compared to the others.
In Januay 2006, I ordered one and made this experience: Because NZL is that area of this globe that is most far away for an European, I have chosen the save way and ordered via airmail and FED-EX. To the costs for the tiller (only ~ 183 US-$ if ordered at NZL) I additional had to pay the shippingcosts (~ 45 US-$) to Europe and in GER the GER-Customs did add "Duty" and "VAT" and Fed-Ex did add another sum for their extra-work they had with the GER-Customs. This additional sum was ~ 67 US-$. To this I had to add the costs for sending the money to Dynamic Composites, because I haven´t a real creditcard (no need for that in GER). This additional sum has been another 38 US-$.
Togehter this is: 333 US-$!! This is perhaps the most expensivst carbon-tiller that the LooserLu has been able buy at the beginning of this year at this globe....
At the website of this NZL-carbo-tiller producer I was able to see, meanwhile they changed the way of shipping during the last month (Perhaps an experience they had with me, I'm not sure about that). They now say, they now only want to have ~9 US-$ extra for delivering the tiller via airmail and world-wide outside of NZL. But I'm afraid, the other costs not did changed.
The KIWI-Tiller is really very good and if this piece of good-NZL-carbon not to break in future (I hope so), I not want to change it to a carbo-tiller of ACME or Roostersailing. :)

Link to the KIWI-Tiller:

http://www.lasertillers.com


Another producer of another nice carbo-tiller is C²-Marine in GB. This company also produces that carbo- and PTFE-disks for the base of the mast step.
Here is a link to their homepage (I like their "animation-toon" of the sailing Laser-dinghy . Would be great to see such a nice "animation-toon" at the head of TLF too, Bradley ;) ):

http://www.c2marine.co.uk/

I don't have any experience with that "Prographite"-tiller, but it seems to me, it 's a good piece of carbon, too.

Ciao
LooserLu
 
Thanks for all the info related to my question. I think I am going to go with the Kiwi Tiller, despite the fact that it is from NZ. Acme tiller seems great although it is a bit heavier than the Kiwi Tiller and doesn´t include the roller.
 
Dutchlaser said:
That is not funny man, it better be very good then :)
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Yup, but the best at that story was: In spring, I went to an official ranking race at a lake in my neighborhood. There a young upcoming pro Laserite of my country had a carbon-tiller that looks quite similar to that Kiwi-Tiller, but it was not from Dynamic-Composite. It seems to me it it's a replika. "FES" was written on this tiller. Normally this is the shortcut of the famous scientific laboratory for sporting goods at GER ("Forschungs und Entwicklungs Stelle" / FES) that do construct this most future-looking carbon bicycles. The young sailor said, he got it with the boat that has been owned before by "Laser Team GER". This tiller seemed to be cheaper than mine, but till now, I was not able to get any information who do sell it here or if this is one of a small quantity of prototypes for "Laser Team GER".
However, this Kiwi-Tiller works really fine, but it is definitely to expensive to buy one and deliver to Europe. The ACME/ or the Roostersailing/tiller are good enough to sail sucessfull competitive and for the price of that Kiwi/Tiller ozu get them wih a Fatso/tiller/extension and another reserve/joint for the tilllerextension etc.

tot ziens
LooserLu
 
Or you could stick to alloy and spend the time it would take earning the cash in training?

Where I live, after tax $250 for a carbon tiller equals about 1 1/2 days' work. In that time you could do about 180 practise starts and hundreds of tacks and gybes and make a very significant impact on your performance.

Ok, it means you have to get out of the office and go sailing, but we have to make sacrifices! :)
 
I am toying with the idea of making a carbon tiller from a carbon fiber hockey stick shaft. At this time of year they run about $35.00 Canadian. With about $5.00 for epoxy & filler and about $20.00 for a 1/2 in. carbon tube used to make kites with $17 for a good rubber diplacment universal and $3 for a golf club grip I can get a passable system for minimal cost....OK so its still not as good as the pro stuff but still good bang for the buck. I feel I would see more gain if were to replace a sail than the tiller/tiller extension combo.
 
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