Tiller Arm

[Pav]

Hi Everyone,

 

Whilst at Stourport today, I saw a boat with a brass tiller arm which had a 'joint' that enabled the arm to be lifted up 90 degrees.

 

Any one else seen these?

 

Where can they be purchased?

 

Had a nice chat to the chap who is a single handed c/c, but as he purchased his boat with this tiller fitted, he was unable to throw much light on it, apart from to say how very useful it was, being able to swing the bar up and out of the way when getting on/off the boat.

 

Thanks.

 

Regards,

Pav.

[blackrose]

Hi Everyone,

 

Whilst at Stourport today, I saw a boat with a brass tiller arm which had a 'joint' that enabled the arm to be lifted up 90 degrees.

 

Any one else seen these?

 

Where can they be purchased?

 

Had a nice chat to the chap who is a single handed c/c, but as he purchased his boat with this tiller fitted, he was unable to throw much light on it, apart from to say how very useful it was, being able to swing the bar up and out of the way when getting on/off the boat.

 

Thanks.

 

Regards,

Pav.

 

I thought most chandlers sold them. I think they have both advocates and critics.

Edited March 3, 2008 by blackrose

[bottle]

Midland Chandlers sell the hinge piece for £57 suitable for 1¼ I D Tube

[Stroudwater Boy]

Procast make a nice one, any length. They shrink fit the tube to the hinge fitting.

[Radiomariner]

I thought most chandlers sold them. I think they have both advocates and critics.

 

I've seen one,

Pros obvious but what are the cons?

[Chris J W]

I've seen one,

Pros obvious but what are the cons?

 

Hinge breaking at inopportune moment?

 

None-traditional?

[magnetman]

I heard the bloke who invented the idea took an eye out on the end of the tiller exiting the cabin and fancied keeping the other one. Why not just remove it as designed? A hinge is a weakness i reckon.

[denboy]

wouldnt be without mine as tiller over shoots the cabin roof by 18"

[WJM]

When exiting the cabin, why would you be more likely to bash into a tiller that happens to have a hinge in it? (more than one that does not hinge?)

 

 

Is having to remember to take something out, and then running the risk of dropping it into the water just another form of weakness? A weakness of the worst kind because it involves humans!

[magnetman]

The idea is that a tiller hinged and sticking upwards is less likely to take your eye out than a horizontal one although the former is rather unfriendly to parachutists...WJM - The inventor took an eye out on a standard tiller and developed a hinged version to give his remaining eye a better chance.

[WJM]

I have you now.

 

No one has told Pav about the risk of hanging your tiller on the lockside when locking down. The wooden end on my tiller has a few scars from that failure of the human brain. I am sure my swan's neck has suffered in he process too.

[magnetman]

Maybe the tiller bar should be removed as a matter of course when in locks - i wonder if that was common practice in the old days? Easier to exit the cabin and avoid spilling the tea as well. Most old working motor narrow boats have self centring rudders, in a slightly angled elum tube the weight of the rudder blade tends to keep itself central... Your swan's neck has suffered - how are his eyes?

[brown]

I have one, useful piece of kit, the only con I can think of is leaving it in the up position and going under a very low bridge.

[Neil@CanalVoyagers]

It's slightly but it's bugging me so I'm going to have to point it out - a swan's neck is a piece of ropework that hangs of the back of a butty elum.

 

 

The item you all repeatedly refer to is called a 'rams head'. Common misconception.

 

It was common place for boatmen to remove the tiller whenever it wasn't necessary for it be there (in a lock / moored). I suspect it made it easier to nip in the back cabin and check on the kettle or stew on the stove!

Edited March 4, 2008 by Neil@CanalVoyagers

[magpie patrick]

It's slightly but it's bugging me so I'm going to have to point it out - a swan's neck is a piece of ropework that hangs of the back of a butty elum.

 

[

 

Not wishing to be contrary, but I thought the swans neck was the S shaped metal bit that connects the rudder stock to the tiller on a motor.

[magnetman]

I thought the swan neck was the curved metal bit on a motor and the rams head was the wooden bit on a butty?.. Out of interest does anyone know what functional purpose that decorative ropework on a butty elum is for?

[LEO]

Hi,

 

I have a 'hinged' tiller and find it excellent, the rudder is self centering and the only complaint I have about it is when in the 'hinged' position there is a sharp point ready to leave a severe imprint on an unsuspecting skull coming up from the Boatman's.

 

Saw them for sale at the Cowroast to-day.

 

Very substantial hinge arrangement - unlikely to break.

 

MIKE

[Machpoint005]

Don't see the point in having a hinged tiller unless it's just easier to get past it on a trad stern deck. We're cruiser stern, so no such problem.

 

Ian

 

Edited 'cos of several too many its

Edited March 4, 2008 by Machpoint005

[Timleech]

I thought the swan neck was the curved metal bit on a motor and the rams head was the wooden bit on a butty?.

 

A common misconception.

They're both Ram's Heads.

 

Tim

[magnetman]

I'm not sure it's a 'misconception' rather a failure of reference sources to name things 'correctly' and a general change of language useage. The MDA waterways objects thesaurus is my favourite online reference site - i'm trying to learn it all. is it wrong describing the swan's neck as Either the z shaped part on a motor OR the decorative ropework on a butty? Horse boats were first to be fair..

[WJM]

I thought the curved metal pole that connects the tiller to the rudder on a modern narrowboat was called a Swan's Neck. Probably the strongest argument I can think of to support this belief is the fact that it is shaped EXACTLY like the neck of a swan!!!

 

Next time you are on the water, take a look at a swan. Then in your mind's eye, super-impose a narrowboat hull onto it in the appropriate place, and Bingo! a Swan's Neck!!!

[magnetman]

However if you go back 100 years, have a look at the horse drawn narrow boats and superimpose a swan pecking the top of the elum, with its textured neck, the ropework described also looks like a swans neck, specifically the neck part of swan no head.

[magpie patrick]

So why can't they both be swan's necks? The "misconception" is so common that in an (admittedly only 41 years) lifetime I've never heard the motor boat version called a rams head, nor read this in any source of a very considerable library that I posess at home nor in any book that I've been lent, although I will admit I haven't looked the term up in Bradshaw's glossary. There are some river bends known as "the swans neck" and they are rather narrow boat tiller shaped.

 

I'm not disputing the working boatmen may have alled this thing the rams head, they may have done or they may not, but in present day terminology it's a swans neck, unless you also go to Llangollen on the Ellesmere Canal, or perhaps regard the grand trunk as part of the four counties ring?

[Timleech]

I'm not sure it's a 'misconception' rather a failure of reference sources to name things 'correctly' and a general change of language useage. The MDA waterways objects thesaurus is my favourite online reference site - i'm trying to learn it all. is it wrong describing the swan's neck as Either the z shaped part on a motor OR the decorative ropework on a butty? Horse boats were first to be fair..

 

I agree that 'swans neck' is now commonly used to describe the bent part of a motor boat's steering gear and everyone is likely to know what is meant, and therefore language usage has changed. Yes it does resemble the shape of a swan's neck.

The wasn't the usage, by working boatmen and others who 'knew the canals', certainly in this neck of the woods, when I first came on the canals and to me it will always be the 'ram's head'.

 

Tim

[JohnO]

It's slightly but it's bugging me so I'm going to have to point it out - a swan's neck is a piece of ropework that hangs of the back of a butty elum.

 

 

The item you all repeatedly refer to is called a 'rams head'. Common misconception.

 

Found this thread searching for the The MDA waterways objects thesaurus.

A Working Boatwoman told me Chris Deuchar was responsible for the term "Swans Neck" back in the 70's.