Hi Connie, Thanks for sharing your experience with the lock box. I will not be using the extension in the way you described, just as a short-handed way of controlling the boat. Everything is a trade-off: not having to rig another line each time I put the boat in saves time and trouble but means opening a hole in the boat and therefore creating a potential leak. Sigh... Thanks again, George M15 #385 On 5/28/04 2:44 PM, "chbenneck@juno.com" <chbenneck@juno.com> wrote:

Hi George,

I too have a Forespar Tiller Extension and the lock box in the side wall of the cockpit.

I thought it would be ideal for holding course when single handing: which it does very nicely..........and for holding the tiller in a fixed position when at the marina dock.

This latter use was a total failure.

The wash of outboard powered water ski boats; and PWC put such a strain on the rudder / tiller that it split the tiller allowing the screws holding the small Forespar fitting in the tiller to fall out - and the Forespar Tiller Extension was just hanging in the breeze the next time I got to the boat.

Apparently waves roll the boat so severely that something has to give in the rigid Forespar / tiller / rudder system, and the weakest link was the Forespar tiller fitting itself - held in placed with two small 1/2 inch screws......

So, back to the drawing board.

Now I just use the Forespar Tiller Extension as an autopilot when raising or lowering sail, or to go below to get a sweater or a beer.

At the dock, I now fasten the tiller with bungee cords. They can move; but they keep the tiller / rudder from moving too much.

Connie M15 #400 LEPPO

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