Aegir-Ran’s original tiller is nearly seven feet long and was originally constructed of laminated hardwood. Unfortunately, the wood started delaminated. An effort was made to shore up the tiller by inserting dowels, but it still felt “hollow” under pressure.
Note two other features of the original tiller: 1) the cam cleats on the top (for the wind vane) and the bracket for the tiller pilot on the bottom are insecurely screwed into the wood and 2) the tiller extends well into the cockpit (making the cockpit difficult to use for purposes other than sailing). To address these issues, the tiller was rebuilt.
This was achieved by sawing the tiller in half, discarding the unusable handle, strengthening the remaining half of the tiller, building a bracket, and constructing a new handle. I started by cutting a groove down the middle of the tiller with a table saw and gluing in a 1-1/4″ x 3/16″ x 5′ bar of stainless steel (with a hole drilled through it for the main bolt).
Additional plates were recessed and glued on the two sides of the tiller where the bolt passes through. Note the white line of carbosil/epoxy that was used to fill the groove left after inserting the steel bar.
After reshaping the the end of the tiller to accept the new bracket using West Systems 407 Fairing Epoxy, the entire tiller was fiberglassed.
A bracket was designed with Fusion 360 and it was constructed by SendCutSend. Because the top was a different thickness than the sides and bottom (to accommodate tapping the threads for the cam cleats) and because the bracket could not be folded, the four sides of was constructed of tabs and slots (to insure alignment of the holes) and it was welded together. Note the tongue that extends from the bracket to accommodate the Tiller Pilot’s bracket.
The tongue of the bracket was attached to the tiller using stainless steel E-Z Knife Threaded Inserts (in addition to two 1/4″ stainless steel bolts the pass horizontally through the bracket).
A handle was designed with Fusion 360 anti was turned from a single piece of ash (not laminated like the original handle), stainless steel tubes were glued into the holes that accept the pins, and the block was fiberglassed to provide additional strength.
The handle is attached with 1/4″ stainless threaded rods and wing nuts so the handle is easily removed during long passages (to free up the cockpit).