Had a great sail on the Chesapeake yesterday as the temperatures and humidity were good and winds were predicted to be 10-15 kts with a small craft advisory starting in the late afternoon. I was still fairly far out of port tacking to get back to the marina with the NW winds starting to occasionally round up the boat (and debating going through the effort to put in a reef in the main) when my tiller split. It split along the length down where the metal fitting had its bolts. I was leaning on it at the time which obviously was not a good idea. This really did not cause a fuss since I was able to motor back in. Even though the winds were 15-20 knots by that point and the M-17 is not the most responsive motor boat (hard to keep going straight) in 3-4 ft waves and that much wind. So I now have a spit tiller that needs to be glued back to one piece and the decision to get a new tiller rudder combo made for me. So first is there a better approach to fixing the split than using west system and clamping it back together? It split along the lamination between two pieces and the surfaces are clean. Second, is there a better after market tiller rudder than Ida Sailor? I had one before for my CP-16 and it helped that boats poor performance quite a bit. My current rudder only has two pintles, no lifting mechanism at all and would be the first thing to hit and would potentially cause a good deal of damage to the transom when it did. It also cannot be installed at the dock at low tide due to water depth. So I have had a new rudder on my list for some time. If you saw the M-17 review years back in SCA magazine you remember one of the M-17 sailors having a spare emergency tiller. I definitely remembered that article staring at my useless tiller/rudder in the blow yesterday!! Thanks Robbin