Sheet To Tiller
Not necessarily. The concept is that the wheel is a tiller only backwards. So one either reverses the power pull of the line that goes to the jib sheet, as Bill described, when it gets to the wheel, OR, ya just tie it to the bottom of the wheel! Lots simpler. The trick is running the fairleads. As I've mentioned, I'm still working out how to do it on Aquavite. Had it running perfectly on our C25, but she had the mainsheet tackle right in the cockpit, so I used mainsheet to tiller for going upwind. Haven't used the jib to tiller, but understand the concept.
Hermit, John Letcher's book is probably over 300 pages long, and it's difficult to explain all his concepts which include wonderful sketch drawings and photographs, on a website forum like this. You & I have been discussing this concept for over a year based on different ideas you've come up with. You could grok up some moolah and buy it on Amazon - you'd love the book because he was a lot like you - industrious and looking for good answers to basic issues. Plus there's so much more in the book: he explains how vane gear systems work, too.
Google as Bill suggests and do some heavy and fun reading. Cruising World or Sail did a writeup on this (and got the lines wrong in their sketch which they corrected in the next letters to the editor section).
You could also try here: http://www.selfsteer.com/index.php
Not necessarily. The concept is that the wheel is a tiller only backwards. So one either reverses the power pull of the line that goes to the jib sheet, as Bill described, when it gets to the wheel, OR, ya just tie it to the bottom of the wheel! Lots simpler. The trick is running the fairleads. As I've mentioned, I'm still working out how to do it on Aquavite. Had it running perfectly on our C25, but she had the mainsheet tackle right in the cockpit, so I used mainsheet to tiller for going upwind. Haven't used the jib to tiller, but understand the concept.
Hermit, John Letcher's book is probably over 300 pages long, and it's difficult to explain all his concepts which include wonderful sketch drawings and photographs, on a website forum like this. You & I have been discussing this concept for over a year based on different ideas you've come up with. You could grok up some moolah and buy it on Amazon - you'd love the book because he was a lot like you - industrious and looking for good answers to basic issues. Plus there's so much more in the book: he explains how vane gear systems work, too.
Google as Bill suggests and do some heavy and fun reading. Cruising World or Sail did a writeup on this (and got the lines wrong in their sketch which they corrected in the next letters to the editor section).
You could also try here: http://www.selfsteer.com/index.php
