Tiller training

[Brian D]

Do you know anyone who is learning how to use a tiller? If so, here is an exercise that will help enforce the concept of using a tiller.

Next time they go shopping, have then push the cart from the front instead of the usual location. This will put the movable wheels in the rear just like a rudder. So if they want to turn left down an aisle they will have to push the cart to the right.

For a realistic weather helm effect, take 10 shopping carts together like a train and push from the front again. If there is any slope in the parking lot the carts will want to go in that direction. One will have to apply opposite force to keep the carts moving in a straight direction.

Thought I would pass that along. I am sure someone else has thought of it or has posted it before.

Have fun.

 

[Ray Bowles]

If a cart with the common "standard flat wheel" is used it will replicate a "Gulf Stream chop.
Ray

 

[Chris Patterson]

I think that is in ASA-104, Brian.

(I haven't heard that, but it's a good exercise. What about A.P. function?)

 

[Joe]

or... just put them dinghy and have them sail around the marina...that's easier than having mall security asking you where you're going with all those carts.... anyway, put them in the sailing dinghy, or in a small boat with an outboard, and tell them the boat steers from the back.... just point the tiller in the direction you want the back to go...the front will go the other.

 

[Charlie Jones s/v Tehani]

if A Cart With The Common "standard Flat Wheel" Is Used It Will Replicate A "gulf Stream Chop.
Ray

 

[Stu Jackson]

Why is it so hard - there's only two possibilities

I've always had difficulty understanding the, well, difficulty that skippers express that others have had with tillers. I must admit that I grew up boating as a kid.

But really, what's so hard? You explain it once, and then put the person at the tiller. Push or pull, it goes one way or the other, and if they don't get it after five minutes, I'm not sure I'd want to be around them when they were backing up a car!

Thanks for that example, Brian.

Actually this is a question: Why do you feel this is so blinkin' hard for some people?

 

[centerline]

I agree with Stu....
anyone over the age of 8, that is willing to grab the tiller and hang on to it, will learn what it does within a few minutes.. and within a half hour of maneuvering, they will have the hang of it . it isnt complex.... only two moves.... that way or this way!
but if they arent willing to hang on to it and TRY, then they wont ever know....

BUT, if you dont allow them to make a few "wrong turns", or if you expect them to hold a perfectly straight course before they get the feel of steering with it, then YOU are setting them up for failure....

ya gotta let a newbie run around under motor while learning the feel, response time, and feedback pressures associated with a tiller, let them steer into the wind, off the wind.... into the waves, turn some circles..... if you cant allow them the time to learn and get the feel of it, they wont ever perform like you want them to, and they may become scared to even try anymore.....

 

[Compromise]

Actually this is a question: Why do you feel this is so blinkin' hard for some people?

Because for some people, it is. I taught a wife and two kids to sail and use boats. I started them out on a tiller because I like tillers and they happened to be on the boats I had at the time. For me a tiller was instinctive but for the wife and kids it wasn't. My daughter caught on fastest with my son right behind. Wifey took a bit longer. Backing up was a fun exercise. I never found a short cut or easy way to teach it. Just grab the tiller and go.
On a different note, after 20 years using a tiller my cocaptain is having problems with our new boat which has a wheel. She started out turning it opposite the way she wanted to go. She has the hang of the wheel now.

I have never understood why some people learn things easier than others. Or why other people have problems with certain things. I think it's probably a left brain right brain thing. My cocaptain is much smarter than I am. I've just been sailing longer.

 

[Chris Patterson]

That IS a very interesting proposition, and now thanks Stu for kicking my brain out of gear. But I've never really thought about it much. The few people that I'll hang around with are mostly adept at sailing, and teaching it would be a huge distraction for me. As others have intimated, I too grew up on boats, so the tiller is just a natural extension like a small outboard. Growing up on a large lake, (540 miles of shoreline), I saw most of that lake growing up with a outboard on a fish boat, or Hobies and Sunnyfishes whatnot, I never think of it.
Wife on other hand, whooo buddy. She can't drive a tiller boat in circles. Ivy league educated, a near genius that is literally incapable of most of life's functions because of it. Go figure. (Maybe that's another reason for having housekeepers and landscapers). It's damn weird. Rarely even operates the auto even. And I think she would like to figure it out, but I don't have many tiller boats left anymore. And she about tore the checkbook in half buying a tiller pilot for that one simply to alleviate her future fear of the helm. I tell her, even with a wheel boat, RUN the damn thing aground, I don't care, I'll call Seatow or whatever. Run over every damn thing in the marina; I carry the finest insurance money can buy. And she has heard me tell other people, herself included, "Tear up anything on the boat, I can fix it. I can cut it in half and make it four feet longer if I please, I can for sure fix whatever you can tear up". And laugh about it. It is not a family heirloom, or dear ol' dad's dying wish to steer off of the oyster beds. You cannot hurt the boat. And some people still regard it as a mystery or something, up to and including regarding the tiller as a rattlesnake.

(Oh yeah, that, amongst other things is why I hate tillers. Loath them actually on a molecular level. I'm too old, and life is too short to teach rudimentary steering, that's what schools are for).

 

[Brian D]

Very interesting. I am not sure why but I also agree that operating a tiller is a frightening experience for some. But think about the large boats that started using wheels. Didn't they also act like tillers at some point? Spin the wheel to the right to turn the boat to port?

Good to know that my thoughts were already out there. It was just fun one day I was doing it and decided to turn the cart around. People thought I was a little wacko. I confirmed that by blabbering aimlessly around the aisle running in to things. LOL had a blast.

 

[Gail R]

Actually this is a question: Why do you feel this is so blinkin' hard for some people?

Because for some people, it is. I taught a wife and two kids to sail and use boats. I started them out on a tiller because I like tillers and they happened to be on the boats I had at the time. For me a tiller was instinctive but for the wife and kids it wasn't. My daughter caught on fastest with my son right behind. Wifey took a bit longer. Backing up was a fun exercise. I never found a short cut or easy way to teach it. Just grab the tiller and go.
On a different note, after 20 years using a tiller my cocaptain is having problems with our new boat which has a wheel. She started out turning it opposite the way she wanted to go. She has the hang of the wheel now.

I have never understood why some people learn things easier than others. Or why other people have problems with certain things. I think it's probably a left brain right brain thing. My cocaptain is much smarter than I am. I've just been sailing longer.

Bingo. I had exactly the same problem. Never boated as a kid, and as much as I loved it, it never came naturally to me. I called it tiller dyslexia, and yes, backing up was a real adventure. And just like the co-captain described above, after switching to a wheel after 15+ years, now I'm having problems with the wheel. I turn it the wrong way. LMAO, maybe I ought to give up boating.

Never had trouble backing up a car. And when we borrowed a buddy's trailer one day to move some stuff, and the other half was perplexed about getting the damend thing to sit still once disengaged from the truck hitch, guess who was first to suggest putting chocks on the wheels? I grew up camping with a pop-up.

 

[John Howitt]

There was a video a few yrs back, where a sailboat with a tiller, turned in front of a large ferry.
I'm assuming that they thought that the opposite was going to happen.