In the cold and dark winter of the north under a thin sheet of plastic I made a small adjustment to the steering arrangement of our Ballad. I moved the tiller two feet aft. Here are a foot fotos of how I did it. I removed the lower two thirds of the tube around the tiller shaft. This tube prevents water coming into the boat. I could have removed all of it, but it was not necessary. I then lowered the rudder to the ground, and slipped a standard Volvo propeller shaft gland over the top of the rudder shaft. This gland fits both the shaft and the rudder thrughthehull pipe perfectly. As may be seen on the photo, the pipe and the shaft do not align perfectly, but the gland is made for such misalignment and adapts itself. Notice the misalignment at the bottom of the gland. I then purchased a number of parts from Jefa Steering ( www.jefa.com). They deliver such parts to many, if not most, european yacht manufacturers. The Flange bearing to the left, was not delivered by Jefa, They don't carry, or produce such items. It is a stainless steel sealed swiveling flange bearing. The Flange bearing had to be mounted on a base at the bottom of the boat, in a position sligtly aft of the tiller head, giving the new tiller shaft the same or almost the same inclination as the rudder shaft. The base was made out of a 16 mm marine plywood sheet, glued to the sanded down spot on the bootom with epoxy mixxed with a microfiber powder to thicken it. This picture shows the base upside down. Here it is after the first glueing process. Excessive epoxy was sanded away, and then 6 layers of fiber cloth was glued on top like this: Notice how I had the flange bearing sitting in the epoxy while it cured to form a perfect fit between base and flange. After some fitting and adjustments I was able to assemble the steering shaft arrangement like this: I left the apoxy unpainted, since it is not normally exposed to ligth, for anybody concerned to be able to see how it is made. I will have to sell the boat one day. A similar arm was clamped onto the rudder shaft like this: The entire arrangement looks like this: The locker bottom fits on top with 15 mm space to the moving parts below, so I was lucky I did not have to modify the locker. Alle the different pipes were led to starboard. What advantages do I expect to have? -
Better space for the wife and I when working the sheets. -
Autopilot arrangement that does not prevent opening the locker it sits on. -
Better space for entertaining when the tiller is raised, when not sailing. -
No chafing on the aft locker door (lid). Saturday we will go on a nine day easter cruise, and I will report back on the new tiller arrangement, and how it works. Jesper Milling  | Hi Jesper: Great job. Although I was doubtful about the benefits at first, it all seems to make sense now. The fact that you can fit just about any sort of autopilot is a great bonus. Enjoy your cruise & Happy Easter. -Nicholas "Moments of Clarity" #334 |
 | Jesper,
I and perhaps other Ballad owners would be very interested to know if you had a keyway milled in the tiller arm and rudder shaft. Jefa seems to recommend this, based on their website. If you did not, how has the system worked? Any slippage?
Congrats on a neat modification!
Heik |
 | Keyways are great of course, because the reduce slippage to zero. But they are difficult to make without taking the entire rudder to a shop with a milling machine. Jefa recommended that I instead had the parts delivered with two screws, we call them pinol screws, I don't know if in english they are called set screws. Anyway two8 mm screws, tightened hard into the shaft. They also recommended that I drilled a hole into the shaft, only like 3 mm deep, so more or less like a small seat for the point of the pinol screw, for each pinol screw to go into. Jefa claims this is how I believe it was Halberg Rassy do it with their Jefa components. Anyhow, I trust this method to be strong enough, but we haven't been out siling with it yet, so I cannot report on slippage or no slippage. We will go sailing for nine days from tomorrow morning and I will return with our impression of the new steering arrangement, and any signs of slippage. |
| We are now on our way home from our Easter trip to Hamburg, and we have some experience with the new steering arrangement, but not a lot. We havent mounted a tiller extension yet, so the steering has been left to the new autopilot a lot. But so far it seems to be working with no problems. And you hardly notice any difference in sensitivity. I have noticed though that the new tiller is slightly misaligned with the rudder. I don't know if this has happened underway, but I think I was very exact when I aligned it under instalation, so maybe it has slipped a little, even though I have no slippage in it now. Not at all. The cockpit off course is a lot better for working the sheets now. We even let the autopilot do the tacking, which it does very nicely. We now only have to shift the sheets. I'll be back with more later. Jesper |
| On the last leg of our return, we had 8 hours of 10-15 m/s wind at 50-60 degrees. It was a very bumpy ride, and only at the end I let the Autopliot ssteer. So I got the feeling of the new steering arrangement And it feels just like the old one. But at one point I did notice a small slippage. Like it would slip with a little smacking sound. But only very little. I will have to find out where it happens. I hope it is at the top, at the tiller head, otherwise I will have to take the whole aft locker apart again. Jesper |
| Regarding the slipping: It's only a very small problem, but irritating. I have to admit I didn't do as reommended, and here is what I should heva done. I should have mounted the lever arms, and used a drill with a little painting tape around it, to mark where the holes for the securing screws should be drilled. I should then have taken the lever arm off the axle, and drilled a small hole with an 8 mm drill, maybe 5 or 6 mm deeep. This would have given e perfect seat for the securing screw to fit into. The drill used for marking should have been covered with painting tape, to protect the threads of the hole, and to make it fit in size to make sure it would center right. Instead I used the hand grinder, to make not grooves, but flat parts, on the shaft, which have turned out not to be good enough. This is an important lesson! Jesper. |
 | Your arrangement looks very nice. When I read and saw what you did, I was thinking this might also be usefull to fit an autopilot below deck.
regards - Georg |
| Hi Georg Not a bad idea to fit the autopilot down below, but the ordinary tiller pilot, that is the least expensive type, is engaged and disengaged by mounting it on the tiller and removing it again. I belive that would be diffucult down below. other types of autopilot, designed for being installed on a wheel system, down below, would probably work fine. I just don쨈t know how they work. I installed a tillerpilot, above as usual, and I will take pictures to show, how much better it fits my new tiller, than it does an ordinary tiller, because it doesn't have to be placed on one of the locker hatches. I'll be back, probably next weekend, because the daylight is not on when I go to work, and it is mostly off again when I return. Jesper |
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| Hi Jesper
I read a while ago about someone who mounted a tiller pilot below deck in the german Palstek. If I remember correctly he used a bowden cable to tighten the fitting to connect the tiller pilot to the rudder. But I don't remember how he controled the slip. One would have to think about how to use the space economically though because of the lenght of the lever arms.
However I was thinking more about using a wheele pilot. The new axle you made cold be used to fit a mini-wheele to attach the wheele pilot to. The power could then be transmittet either with a chain, like on a bicycle, with the the correct lever, or a quadrant with cables could be used. We dont't have a ballad, we have a folkeboat and there the only solution is a tiller pilot. We are looking into a bigger boat though, this is why I was reading in the forum. I have not yet been on a ballad, so I have no idea about the available space and it might just not work......but I thought I could share the idea.
Regards Georg |
| Hi Georg Thanks for sharing, I think I would rather fit a Cape Horn wind vane, which also works down below. I hope you have a chance to sail a Ballad one day. Jesper. |
 | Hi Georg There is a lot more room in a Ballad than a Folkboat and the rain doesn't leak in through the roof like my lovely old Folkboat 'Nella'. The Ballad sails like a big Folkboat. My Ballad 'Balu' impressed my friend who sails a Rustler 36, a 'big' folkboat type! Get yourself a sail on a Ballad. Dick |
| Hi Jesper
I just looked at the cape horn vane, sound like a pretty good idea...in case you do it would be great to see some phots.
Dick - we will start looking around next year...
Georg |
 | Georg, Just saw your note concerning mounting an auto pilot internally. Did so a few years back with my Albin 30 and the configuration may work on a Folkboat as well. Please see my message of 4/17/05 "Mounting an Autopilot." If you have any questions please contact me. I can provide photos, etc, Regards, Dan (Acqua di Vita) |
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