| Tush, he said. Anything made of wood is repairable with a little epoxy.
How neat a repair do you want? A quick and inelegant repair could be
done in couple of hours (unless you totally demolished the original). If
you want an elegant repair, there are three options:
1. Adapt a stock tiller (available from various sources).
2. Pay someone to custom make a tiller.
3. Make the tiller yourself.
I made a new tiller for my boat sometime ago -- a lovely curved and
laminated ash and mahogany masterpiece (I think). If you have access to
a table saw, bandsaw, thickness planer, drill press, and lots of clamps,
making a custom tiller is only a 10 to 20 hour job if you have some
woodworking experience. Oh, you want 10 coats of varnish, too. Add
another 5 to 10 hours. I managed without the thickness planer (but the
tiller was one of several justifications for buying one recently).
Adapting a stock tiller is by far the least expensive option (other than
repair). How did you break a tiller, by the way?
Alan
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re .1
Thanks for the location - I'll check it out!
The 'S' shape is closest to what I had. The top of the rudder is within a
couple of inches of the level of the stern, so I think the concave or 'S'
shapes are good choices, depending on where the curve starts.
re .2
I'd feel uncomfortable about repairing the the tiller. It's about ten years
old, and it doesn't look to have been maintained all that well. The spilt
revealed wood that looked rotted to my untrained eye. As to how it
broke: the boat was pointed up in a strong wind, on what started out to be
a mild day, and the tiller decided it was time to retire. I'd noticed some
cracks before, and had done some minor re-enforcing, but not enough. I've now
learned the hard way about priority of equipment repairs. (And am now wondering
about other potential failures.)
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