The following is a description of a method I have adopted for my dinghy that enables me to leave the tiller for short and sometimes quite long periods in good conditions. It may be of interest to those who often have to sail on their own, as it allows one to lunch or carry out short term tasks without heaving-to. It is particularly useful when leaving an anchorage.

The great advantage over the usual tiller lashing is the accurate positioning and quick release of the tiller.

It is quite simple and cheap to fit, can be adjusted to personal requirements, and is as follows:-

An elastic cord is stretched across the beam of the boat at about mid-tiller position, and a cleat is fitted to the underside at the front of the tiller. When required, the elastic is pulled forward and jammed in the cleat as illustrated. The elastic cord should be the most powerful obtainable and stretched to the maximum possible by hand. The cleat I favour is a single-sided black plastic type.

As you will realise, this allows small tiller adjustments without unjamming the elastic, but if an emergency arises, the tiller can be forced over instantly without even unjamming the elastic.

The exact tensioning and positioning will obviously vary with the type of boat, but I have found it sometimes useful to exert extra jamming force on the elastic in the cleat by means of a cord going to the rear of the tiller arm. This is only required rarely, and can still be overcome by exerting enough force on the tiller.

Once such a system is fitted, it is surprising how one quickly finds more and more advantages in it, and although there is perhaps a slight danger of ignoring looming dangers, it is, in fact, not possible to leave the tiller in a dinghy for long if anything of a sea is running, as most will appreciate.