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West Wight Potter Mailing List maintainer
dfarrell@ridgecrest.ca.us
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Ken
I'm sure the problem is the bungeee. It just has too much initial
resistance to stretch. Your setup sounds correct otherwise and the response
will be much better with surgical tubing. .
Harry Gordon
P14 #234, Manatee
Mountain View, CA
>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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>Snipped
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Mar 31 2000 - 03:27:12 PST