I bought my Topper Cruz secondhand a couple of years ago and I have enjoyed sailing it since. Sadly, I have not yet been on an Association cruise as timing always seems to be wrong. I work shifts, and weekends are not always the best times for me to get away.

Having done most of my sailing at a local club, one aspect of the Cruz was getting me down: the tiller arrangement. There is no doubt at all that you get used to the 'Y' configuration in time, but it is still less than ideal when going about, it restricts the positions you can helm from, and the lack of leverage when the helm is fully over needs to be taken into account. The boat has so many other fine and practical attributes that I decided to spend some time trying to improve matters.

The solution I came up with is a simple arrangement of wires and brackets, as can be seen in the illustrations. The difficult bit was getting the positioning, clearances and measurements right.

First a T-shaped bracket was made which wraps around the rudder and attaches to it above the top mount. (Fig. 1 and 4)

Then a mounting plate was made with a tube running vertically for the tiller assembly to slide into (Fig.2). The angle between the tube and the plate was important to ensure that the tiller rotated in the same plane as the rudder, and was level across the boat. This was attached to the front of the mizzen mast support bulkhead by means of 8 self-tapping screws. As yet, I have not bonded it to the bulkhead as it seems very firm.

Next, I made up the tiller assembly itself. (Fig.3) It is important that the cross piece is exactly the same length as the cross piece attached to the rudder so that the distance between them remains the same when turning. The cross piece must be sufficiently thick and wide to retain its strength when shaped to allow full movement of the cable ends.

The length of the cross piece was determined by the clearance required for the attached cables to clear the mizzen mast when the tiller is hard over. (Fig.4)

The tiller assembly is simply slotted into its mounting tube using the foot-long rod shown and it has not proved necessary to have any form of retaining screw holding it in.

A pair of matching adjustable cables were made up for me by Morton Boats near Lincoln and the 3 assemblies were powder-coated to match the boat colour.

The tiller was made from some mahogany strip and strengthened at the ends with small pieces of stainless steel and some proprietary fastenings and swivels used to complete it.

The tiller will lift to vertical from its rear mounting and pivots and lifts in the middle to provide ease of movement for the crew, giving a wide range of seating positions when steering; this allows a better balance to be maintained in the boat. The knotted cord seen in some of the pictures is just a simple device to hold the rudder steady, particularly when you are single-handed. (Fig.5) It is a piece of cord with bungee tied at each end and then attached to the transom as shown. I screwed a small hook under the tiller tube near the front through which the knots cannot pass and when required you simply stretch the cord forward and place it in the hook. It has proved very useful and the amount of stretch in the bungee cord means that you can often cruise for long periods without removing it.

The first outing with the new tiller assembly was on the Deben from Felixstowe Ferry last October and was deemed a great success by all who tried it. Much to my delight one of my friends who had not seen the boat before thought it was an original fitment. The modification makes the Cruz easier and more relaxing to sail, leverage is improved and so is flexibility of seating positions. In all, well worth the effort. If any Cruz owners would like further details please get in touch.