I've been trying them off thusly: I use an extra dock line with an eye splice over a cleat near the stern. I don't bother with anything fancier than just looping or over the stern. I wrap around the tiller twice, then make the other end fast to the cleat on the other side with a tautline hitch and tension it vigorously. It's critical that the two cleats and the wraps around the tiller be aligned - if the wraps aren't directly between the two cleats, it will slide up or down along the tiller and loosen. But if it's kept tight, this will still be snug when you return to the boat ( so far it has held well in a wind storm of 70 mph gusts, but also in the lee of the land, so maybe less wind than that in reality). I find two half hitches doesn't keep enough tension, so I use a tautline. I'm not sure all m17s have cleats at the aft end of the comings, but they should - great for dock lines too. That having been said, I do think this arrangement still puts stress on the pintles as well as the tiller brackets. I snapped one of the cast aluminum brackets last year, and I suspect it wouldn't have happened if I had been removing the rudder after each use. This year I intend to leave the rudder in anyway though... It's not a huge concern for me. Conbert Benneck <chbenneck@gmail.com> wrote:
On 3/14/2016 8:05 PM, GILASAILR--- via montgomery_boats wrote:
Tie it so that it is fixed, otherwise if you are at anchor or on a mooring and the boat tends to sail back and forth your rudder is constantly in motion.
If you keep it from moving you aren't putting wear on the pintles.
Connie
Same as Dave says - http://www.wavefrontmarine.com/ nice piece of work on this one. NFIW but I use one.
In a message dated 3/14/2016 5:55:12 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jsheintz@gmail.com writes:
What are you supposed to do with the rudder while at anchor or a mooring? Do you do anything differently for a short stop vs overnight? How about when rough conditions are expected?