Blue Peter Sailing Dinghy - Tiller Extension - Mk1

I feel for my son - here he was, new to sailing aged 6 and I was learning with him how to adapt this boat to try and make it easier to sail.

What we'd found was that tacking and gybing in anything but very low wind could result in him letting go of the tiller, so, I added a tiller extension (NOTE: don't copy this design, try the second method - much better).

Blue Peter Dinghy Tiller Extension
Finished Tiller Extension

Here you can see the unadultered tiller, with the extension bolted to it. The universal joint is for this purpose, but the extension itself is an aluminium rod I bought so I could trim it to needed size. This turned out to be too short.

The grip on the end has been made using tennis racquet grip... which is lovely, but, my son picked at it so it was always unraveling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blue Peter Dinghy Tiller Extension
The Tiller Extension being modelled by a little sailor
 

Here it is, just testing the setup. There are a  couple of things wrong with it, but the main thing is that the universal joint I sourced won't let the extension drop.

I had thought this feature would help, but it caused the tiller extension to be twisted out of my son's hand while he sailed it when its movement wasn't in a plane it wanted to move. This style of universal joint isn't really suitable.