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West Wight Potter Mailing List maintainer
dfarrell@ridgecrest.ca.us
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To: Ken Preston
Subject: Re: Self Steering P-14/15
Ken: not everyone on the list is familiar with the "Many Ways to Potter Self
Steering System". Myself included. It might be useful to post a brief
description, so others could comment intelligently <?> on your question <G>.
Thanks -- dwf
Sorry 'bout that. The method uses the tension from the mainsheet to pull
the tiller to weather and counter balances it with a rubber "strop" pulling
down to leeward. This is achieved most easily by providing a pair of anchor
points a little aft of the forward end of the tiller on either side of the
cockpit coaming or in my case, on the cockpit rails. I just seized a pair
of cheap rings, one on each side to the cockpit rails. You can then snap
into those rings easily and move your gear from side to side. The other
major requisite is some way to get hold of the tiller with the rubber and
the line from the mainsheet. Nicest solution I've thought of was a pair of
plastic jam cleats on the underside of the tiller. . .one facing port, the
other starb'd. The rubber strop ties to a snaphook(I used thin shock cord,
the Many Ways article suggests surgical tubing)so it's easy to snap into the
lee ring and run the shock cord to the jam cleat that works that direction.
The line to the mainsheet is a little more complicated. You need a few feet
of 1/4" line, a small strap block (swivel block would be a little nicer) and
two more snap hooks. Sieze or shackle the snaphook to the bail of the block
and that hooks into the ring on the weather rail. run the line through the
block and splice the other snaphook on the end of the line headed up toward
the mainsheet (where it travels along under the boom. . .you guys with boom
end sheeting are going to have another problem to face). Now it's easy to
lead the free end of the little piece of line to the other jam cleat under
the tiller. With the boat sailing with a light helm (adjust sheets)
somewhere above of a broad reach, take the line from the mainsheet, pulling
a little bight into the sheet, through the block on the weather rail, to the
tiller. Cleat it off while holding course. Reach over and get the rubber
strop on the lee rail and cleat it to take whatever tension your tiller hand
had been resisting. Sit back and watch. Adjust as/if needed. Given
variable strength and direction of wind it doesn't seem to do well. The
book by Djikstra (Self Steering for Sailing Craft) carries excellent
sketches and photos and many other options. He made a remark that leads me
to think the shock cord is really part of the problem, though the surgical
tubing won't work with my jam cleats. Hope this helps. . .it's a lot of
talk for a fairly simple setup.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Mar 31 2000 - 03:27:12 PST