My boat has a wheel, but no auto pilot. That limits me to doing double handed races as the wheel brake is unreliable at best. The emergency tiller is pretty effective at moving the wheel and rudder when tied up at the dock - except that the tiller is pointed 90 degrees away from the bow.

I was looking at throwing one of those $350 tiller autopilots on the boat and then getting a new "emergency tiller" fabbed up that points in the right direction and then attach the two for bay racing so I can at least get forward in the cockpit to get the spinnaker up and down etc.

I would Fab one up myself but I sold my drill press and welder before I moved out here. This seems like a case of beer payment, 20 minute kind of project a machine shop could squeeze in at the end of the day if I provide the raw materials. Should I just farm this out to svensens or what is the typical sailor protocol here in the bay area.

Thoughts/comments