[Rhodes22-list] Tiller Pilot Recommendations

[ROGER PIHLAJA]

Mike,

In my previous post, I gave Raymarine Tillerpilot P/N’s.  These pieces/parts assumed the gunnel end of the Tillerpilot would be mounted on the top of the gunnel on the starboard side.  The pedestal mount is thru bolted thru the top of the gunnel using 4 SS fender washers as backing plates.  This type of mount will load the gunnel in shear.  The 4 fender washers will provide more than enough shear strength for this application.

Far more critical is the installation of the pin in the tiller.  It needs to be precisely mounted in terms of the distance from the center of rudder rotation and the angle of the pin in the tiller.  The pin needs to be vertical when the tiller is all the way down.

I considered mounting the socket for the Tillerpilot in the starboard coaming compartment.  But, I decided against it because the cable would be in the way in between the Tillerpilot and the coaming compartment.  That’s very valuable sitting real estate in the cockpit.  Instead, I mounted the Tillerpilot socket thru the side of the starboard gunnel aft of the Tillerpilot.  This puts the cable out of the way of the mainsheet and traveler controls and it isn’t in danger of someone sitting on it.

Have you ever crawled under the cockpit seats?  On my boat, there is an epoxy coated strip of wood covering the hull/deck joint.  Cables can be anchored to this strip of wood with cable ties & anchors.  As far as the installation of the Tillerpilot socket, the underside of the gunnel can be accessed from the lazarette compartment.  Assuming the lazarette compartment is cleaned out, I can get my whole body in there and I’m a pretty big guy and not very flexible anymore.

You will need to use a fish tape or an unbent wire clothes hanger to fish the wire from the cockpit bulkhead to the circuit breaker box.  It’s only a couple of feet, so this is a pretty easy fishing job.  The Tillerpilot should be on it’s own separately fused circuit.

Other than that, refer to my previous post.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium

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From: mm.bizlist1 at gmail.com<mailto:mm.bizlist1 at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 2, 2022 11:02 AM
To: 'The Rhodes 22 Email List'<mailto:rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Tiller Pilot Recommendations

Hi Peter,

I do have Bill's writeup, as well as Roger's email describing his Tiller Pilot installation.  My boat has speed and depth transducers in the lazarette, so the pathway into the coaming is already present.

Since I will be drilling holes in my boat for the first time, I want to make sure my plan sounds reasonable based on your experience.  I intend to install the electrical socket for the Tiller Pilot in the starboard coaming pocket.  I will also install a 12V socket there as well.  Since these will be relatively small holes I am guessing that I will need to use a fish tape or something like that to get the wiring from the electric panel connection to that hole.  Is that how you did it?

I'm also hoping that my gunnel is thick enough so I don't have to reinforce the Tiller Pilot mounting socket from underneath.  If that is not the case, I believe I can reach that point from inside the lazarette.  Is that what you did to put the hardwood backing block in Silverheels?

Thanks for all you help and for the amazing library of videos you have shared with our community.


Mike McKay
s/v Liber (2006/2018)
Allatoona Lake
Acworth, GA





-----Original Message-----
From: Rhodes22-list <rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org> On Behalf Of Peter Nyberg
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2022 5:59 PM
To: rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Tiller Pilot Recommendations

Mike,

I'm not Roger, but I'll offer some of my experience anyway.

First, I hope you've found Bill Wickman's write-up of the installation of a Raymarine ST-1000 on his boat: https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Frhodes22.org%2Fdocument.html%3Fdocuments%2FTillerPilotSetuponRhodes22.pdf&data=04%7C01%7C%7C46b1c3e18c8d4716342608d9e67e7d8d%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637794253233449617%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=qHOiiYudmChIw13nZzsvDBcaTFJ8DxOZWGu0TMF2joA%3D&reserved=0

To answer your second question first, I had an unused circuit on my electrical panel, and used that to power the tiller pilot.  Since that placed a breaker into the circuit, I did not also include and inline fuse.  It seems to me that would be redundant.

As for the routing of wires...  If you have the standard General Boat galley, there's an area that's below the electrical panel, above the counter-top and behind the sliding panels.  If you drill a hole in the aft panel of this area, you will have an opening into the interior space of the starboard coaming.  Do this close to the hull, just to be sure you're not drilling a hole into the cockpit.

Best of luck,

Peter Nyberg
Coventry, CT
s/v Silverheels (1988/2016)

> On 2022-01-31, at 16:36:49 EST, Michael McKay wrote:
>
> Hi Roger,
>
> I am finally prepared to install a Tiller Pilot on s/v Liber and am hoping to
> get some additional advice before I start.
>
> 1) What is the best way to route the wiring harness to the starboard coaming
> pocket?
> 2) Did you connect your Tiller Pilot to the electric panel or bypass that and
> connect it to the house battery directly?  I do understand that an inline fuse
> is required in either case.
>
> I do plan on eventually installing a chartplotter and integrating the Tiller
> Pilot with that, but that is a project for another day.
>
> Thank you for all your contributions to this forum!
>
> Mike McKay
> s/v Liber (2006/2018)
> Allatoona Lake
> Acworth, GA
>
>
>
>