Gutted Hull to Offshore Boat: What It Takes

[John Stone]

I have not been on the forum in a long time. I completed the rebuilding of my boat and I have sailed her offshore about 11,000 miles so far.

Thought I would share a video I made of what it took to encourage others to stick with it.

https://youtu.be/u7FdROltzPw

[atomvoyager]

Thanks for sharing this video. John's Cape Dory 36 rebuild was beautifully done with many practical added features.

John, I noticed that your tiller is 5' long and looks like it comes up to the forward end of the footwell. We are going to build a tiller for Mark's CD36 here and planned on making it about 4' long to leave some clearance to stand in front of it and have less of an obstruction in the cockpit. After all the sailing you've done with the long tiller did you find you ever really needed that extra leverage or do you think 4' is enough?
Thanks.
James

[John Stone]

Hi James. Thanks for the kind words.

I think 4' will work fine. Since I had little to go off of I had to guess at 5'. I didn't know what kind of lever arm I needed. Turns out not much as the helm is almost neutral. The tiller is 4'6" now for the reasons you suggest. For me, I think 4'3" would give me enough room. But the extra length is handy when hand steering while standing on the locker lids. Also, I have the pram hood instead of the dodger and a longer tiller makes it possible to sit on the bridge deck with legs and feet inside the boat with my torso tucked up behind the hood in the rain and hand steer if necessary. Would not be an issue with a dodger.