The International Canoe

Now many of us have suffered with this problem....Following a capsize and righting the canoe you find the tiller hard over to one gunwale and the tiller extension under the canoe and jammed in front of the rudder blade. There appears to be little chance of this ending well and sailing on so please advise me how you may have cured this nightmare problem. Its a far bigger problem in the new IC's than the older OD's.All suggestions welcome!

Colin, make a 100mm dia disc from tufnol, carbon or a stiff nylon/plastic, bolt it between the tiller extension swivel & tiller which will then not allow the tiller extension to drop just below horizontal. Cheers, Rob.

I had been thinking along those lines as you suggest Rob but to date I have not seen any other tillers fitted with your suggestion. There is however a difference in height to make up here as the tiller extensions sits about 25mm above the tiller due to the UJ. Anybody tried this?

I've done the collar thing on other classes in the days before rubber UJs. My main concern would be an escalated tiller extension breaking capability.
Might one also consider limiting the rudder movement? How many boats are there where the max effective angle of the rudder puts the tiller end over the side?

I've certainly had this in the past but don't seem to have had the problem recently. it happens when the tiller extension sinks, the boat gets blown over it and it pulls the tiller to one side. So my theory is that you need a floating tiller extension and strong enough elastic on the tiller centering to stop this happening, which more by luck than judgement I have both.

Thanks Alistair, I do have a tiller extension that floats and self centring elastic on the tiller. The longer the tiller and the further back in the canoe the rudder the bigger the problem. This problem never happened in the OD with the rudder box well forward. This season I have added 300mm to the tiller to help keep my weight well forward in light winds and I am very aware that should I capsize with the longer tiller it will take a little sorting out on the water.Not the sort of thing you want to be doing during a heavy winds race.
A capsize in a race resulting in the tiller extension jammed in front of the rudder will result in certain retirement
I will try stronger elastic to hold the tiller on the centreline when the canoe is on its side and see if this helps. I seem to remember that Del Olsen and co. had very short tillers and limiters to prevent UJ travelling beyond the gunwale line. That would do the trick.
Any other observations welcome.