Great to see that you got sheet to tiller to work for you. I was hoping to do a four day passage this year entirely under sheet to tiller but the C19 virus has put that on hold for the moment.
I use a girth hitch on the tiller that I can roll either way to slack tention or tention the control line by rolling line on the tiller. It works pretty good for fine adjustments
Hi John. The short answer is , NO. You will definitely need to be awake. "Overnighter" sounds to me like coastal cruising. Any wind driven self steering (trim tab, sheet to tiller, hydo-servo system like an Aries) will only follow a course relevant to wind direction. In coastal areas it is rare to have consistent wind direction, so whatever system you have will alter your course as the wind changes. One side will be the coast with its dangers and the other will be out to sea. An electric tiller pilot will keep a course until the sails luff and flap and hopefully wake you up. However, for a load of reasons, that is too dangerous in a coastal area. So, either and extra hand aboard or short hops of up to 18 hours. This the way that Kevin does his coastal sailing. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zCGELWAwmNs.html
Nice video. One question. It looks like you still have the jib sheet tight - so the jib sheet is still working as usual to hold the jib in place. (The control line hasn't taken over from the jib sheet). Is that right? In other words, with the jib sheet working as usual there's still enough play in the jib to transmit the movement to the control line?
Good morning Toby. The jib sheet is released just a little, so it is still basically controlling the sail. However the balance between the control line tension and the sheet tension is the trick. For example, on a starboard tack, if the boat bears to port the sheet will go a little slack and the control line will pull the tiller over. If it bears to port the opposite reaction will occur. I have another post where you can see the foresail fluttering a little as it isn't sheeted in. This system will be different for every boat and in different conditions, but the more you use and play with it the better it gets. Gary ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EL-i5bebVSo.html
@@garymalm Thanks Gary, that helps a lot - appreciate it. I tried it last weekend, and whilst I kept on course for a while, I always ended up luffing up into the wind. The control line never corrected my course back *away* from the wind. I tried loosening the bungee and tightening up the control line - but that didn't seem to solve it. Afterwards I thought maybe the jib sheet was too tight, and there wasn't enough movement being transmitted from the jib to the control line & tiller. As you suggest, I'll try with less tension in the jib sheet next time. I love the system... just needs some more practice!
I know this is 4 years old and you may have made some more improvements. I use a soft shackle on the windward block just before the tiller. Loop that soft shackle around the cleat on the cockpit combing. This reduces the drag from the cockpit combing and gives you more power and control off the jibsheet.
