Tiller extensions

[rich scheffer]

I read Dean A's post "almost died today" sent chills up my spine. I have been in the water twice, not duck hunting but while making a living on the great south bay on LI. Not a great experience. Once I let go of the tiller while up on a plane,20 mph or so, thought it would stay straight for a few seconds while I kept something from blowing out of the boat,WRONG! last thing I remember seeing was my boat up on its side. As I swam to the surface much to my surprise my boat was not upside down, but still up on a plane and going around in circles. Drowning was my last worry, getting run over was my BIG worry. Luckily a friend saw the whole thing and picked me up and we chased down my run away boat, which I jumped into and got under control. That was 45 years ago, no safety switches. Today we have much safer equipment and we need to use it! Safety lanyards are a no brainer, Home made tiller extensions are another story. There are quite a few quality pieces out there. Click on "search posts" on this site there have been quite a few posts over the years on 'tiller extensions',with pictures of all sorts of extensions, some excellent, some plain old scary. Would you drive down I 95 with a hose clamped pvc extension on the steering on your car or truck? Im sure this will ruffel a few feathers but this web site covers a great bunch of guys, and god knows the world we live in cannot afford to lose any more good guys! there are just not enough to go around any more! Rich

 

[Andy Grant]

Everything seems perfectly safe, until something goes wrong. I haven't used my tiller extension yet, but have been around before when other things go south, not a good place to be.

While we are on the topic of safety, hanging on to a single rope for stability while one stands running the tiller, sounds like a recipe for disaster.

 

[rich scheffer]

Bow rope will probably keep you from falling back, but wont keep you from going out the side. The grab bars we have on our mud boats are a blessing. with the long tail mud motors they are almost a necessity,since they take so much effort to handle.Now I see a lot of guys with surface drives not using grab bars, since they are so easy to steer. Not a good idea! someone's going to hit something in the dark marsh and get pitched out! Rich

 

[Chris S.]

I did the stand up with the bow line while running. I just didn't feel safe at all. I now kneel in the sneakbox. I added a saftey lanyard killswitch to my old merc. After reading some of these storries. My saftey kill switch is not long enough in my sneakbox so I use a 4ft piece of paracord from the end of the lanyard to hook to me. I always wear the killswitch. I think all the stories I have heard either didn't have a saftey lanyard or weren't wearing it. Good luck and be safe.

 

[CGeminski]

I always kneel when running my boat and have a PFD on, I also have the motor kill switch lanyard around my wrist so if I do get thrown out the boat wont run off, or run me over and I should be able to swim to it.
I also am replacing my PVC tiller extension with one from www.strongarmproducts.com. Much more solid, made for your outboard for a perfect fit and you have the option of adding a kill switch on the end of the tiller extension.. Not cheap, but I figured my life was worth $150.

 

[Mark Spolarich]

A piece of advice that saved my butt when I was thrown from a bass boat. Show anyone riding (to include young children) how to shut the boat down in an emergency. I taught my 8 year old son how and he saved me. I almost flipped my boat after hitting a bad wave combination and was tossed from the boat. Well, partially tossed since my foot caught the steering wheel which caused me to be drug alongside the boat at 50mph (the reason for knee surgery). I had a life jacket on and safety lanyard attached but it never shut the boat down. As I tried to free myself so I could shut the boat down my son managed to climb over and turn the motor off. A bad situation that could have been worse if my son didn't have the knowledge on how to work the boat.

A peaceful day can turn sore in a hurry, even with all the safety gear. My son is now 21 and still doesn't like to ride in a boat because of that spring day back in 98........

 

[Farrukh Ashraf]

Just want to add one experience , while hunting last year on a very cold and rough day, as i got to my location i wanted to climb up on bank and tie my boat, so i pulled out my kill switch but the motor kept running, on looking closely i realized that the water splashed while running the boat had frozen around the switch preventing it from functioning normally, another thing to keep an eye on.