Why does a canal boat have a S shaped tiller?

[mark99]

On 23/04/2019 at 17:51, Chris Williams said:

Never heard of it, and I left the canals in 1975.  I understand that the lift bridge at Thrupp is now called 'Aubrey's Bridge'.

They were both really nice people to know.

The Z-shape tiller on my pontoon was made from Kee Klamps - fittings designed for cattle fencing.  They had 45 degree angle bits.

 

 

Aha - nice - just realised my Saturday was spent putting up a fruit cage made from old tillers. 

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2019 by mark99

[Chris Williams]

9 minutes ago, mark99 said:

just realised my Saturday was spent putting up a fruit cage made from old tillers.

What happened to the twirly paint on them?

[mark99]

I just need a signwriter who works for all he can eat in berries/cherries.

[Salty Mick]

Sorry to come in so late on this but the actual reason was to distribute weight equally behind and in front of the pivot point so as to reduce wear on the bushings.

 

[Slow and Steady]

So you could get your back under it and lift the rudder back onto the skeg if required?

[IanD]

2 hours ago, Salty Mick said:

Sorry to come in so late on this but the actual reason was to distribute weight equally behind and in front of the pivot point so as to reduce wear on the bushings.

 

...which doesn't work as soon as you attach a nice long heavy tiller bar 😞

 

If this was the reason the vertical section would all be to the rear of the pivot to  counterbalance it and there wouldn't be an S-shape...

[Tracy D'arth]

Have you ever tried to put a right angle bend in thick steel bar? Much easier to put 2 slow bends in and make it S shaped.

[magnetman]

It's obviously to do with vibration and your hand. 

 

Unpowered boats had wooden bars attached to the rudder. Wood is good at absorbing vibration. They even use it for sleepers around the points on railways. It's a no brainer. 

 

So when they started doing canal boats in metal, with everything other than the hatches,doors and interior (and perhaps the bottom)  made of metal, it was rapidly discovered that making an "elum" out of iron needed to be done differently because of the way that metal behaves. It will kill your hand. Early elfin safety. They did look after people to an extent.  

 

The solution was found by increasing the length of the solid metal part to take out the damaging vibrations. Ok so it still shakes about but it is a manageable shake not a white finger job. 

 

It's not rocket science.

 

 

 

 

[Puffling]

42 minutes ago, magnetman said:

It's obviously to do with vibration and your hand. 

 

Unpowered boats had wooden bars attached to the rudder. Wood is good at absorbing vibration. They even use it for sleepers around the points on railways. It's a no brainer. 

 

So when they started doing canal boats in metal, with everything other than the hatches,doors and interior (and perhaps the bottom)  made of metal, it was rapidly discovered that making an "elum" out of iron needed to be done differently because of the way that metal behaves. It will kill your hand. Early elfin safety. They did look after people to an extent.  

 

The solution was found by increasing the length of the solid metal part to take out the damaging vibrations. Ok so it still shakes about but it is a manageable shake not a white finger job. 

 

It's not rocket science.

 

 

 

 

My vote's on this one.

[Captain Pegg]

11 minutes ago, Puffling said:

My vote's on this one.

 

I'll cancel that out. It's passing off pure supposition as if it's fact.

 

The helm of an unpowered boat is totally different to a powered boat. The design is different by necessity, irrespective of the materials. The change from wooden to iron/steel boats also had a fair degree of coincidence with that of horse power to engine power. I suspect wood was used because it was available, that was certainly the case with railway sleepers and bearers. Concrete - or even steel - is now preferred to timber.

[Peugeot 106]

My S tiller  was hollow and rattled so much that my wife used to complain about a sore hand. I changed the cup and bearing but it didn’t make much difference.I  had a replacement solid one made exactly the same shape and the tiller shakes much less so that she hasn’t complained since. I made various experiments with weights before getting it made and thought about filling the original with sand etc but the price of getting one fabricated wasn’t too bad. Do the bends make it longer and thus heavier for the same diameter reducing vibration?

[Ray T]

Doesn't always have a S shaped tiller.

[Peugeot 106]

No I don’t think it needs to be S shaped but in my case the heavier it was, the less it shook. I hung weights on the tiller bit and up and down the stem and it didn’t seem to make much difference  where the weight was it just needed to be heavier.

I should have said that my Narrowboat is only 25 ft long and has a really stubby inelegant  swim which probably doesn’t help with vibration but with the heavier tiller the vibration is no longer problematic. Possibly worth a try if you’ve got vibration problems. You can just wrap old bits of lead round the tiller (and return them to the scrapyard when finished). You could possibly “tune” your vibrations out by moving the weights at optimal cruising speed! I just got the solid tiller made at a local fabricator to match the shape of the old one and that did the trick for me.