Home made Hiking Stick

The Newport 16 tends to sail better with the weight shifted forward. I usually like to sit at or forward of the keel winch.  To do this the tiller requires a hiking stick. A hiking stick has many other advantages. I can sit further outboard to see around the foresail or balance the boat. Motoring through a crowded anchorage or going up a narrow creek I can stand up for better visibility.

The Stick is made from things that I already had around my garage. Last year Dick’s Sporting Goods had a 2 piece 10 foot, Graphite Fishing Pole for under $10. This is not a Fishing Rod with Guides. It is a pole you tie a line to the end of to go bank fishing. I have used this pole for several projects because it is flexible and strong. The Hiking Stick is made out of a piece of the top part. The ball at the tip is a wooden drawer knob. To make the pivot joint I took epoxy soaked glass cloth fibers and started to wrap them around the end of the pole. The inside of the end is filled with some epoxy filler. After the fiberglass lump cured I used a grinder to shape the end into a square and slit the middle for the Pivot Pin. The Pivot Pin is an old 316 stainless pin I had that had a lanyard eye. The whole thing is coated with epoxy resin, wet sanded and topped with a coat of black spray paint. To mount the Hiking Stick on the Tiller I drilled an oversized hole and epoxied a short piece of metal tubing into the tiller stock. This was done to provide a smooth bearing for the pin and keep the tiller wood from splitting. There is a washer on each side of the tiller. The pin was cut to length, threaded and installed using a lock nut on the bottom. Nut was tightened just enough to allow free movement.

To stow the Hiking Stick on the tiller I had two sollutions. At first I just used a rubber band, quick, cheap and effective. For the finished look I mounted a metal bungee hook half way up the stick. The hook was adjusted with a pair of needle nose pliers to allow the stick to tuck under without scratching the finish.

The tiller was splitting where it attaches to the rudder head. To repair it I filled the crack and old holes with epoxy. Then I wrapped glass gibers around the bottom section. The fiberglass was sanded and coated with some black spray paint. The whole tiller was epoxy coated and varnished. Currently it is the nicest piece of wood on “Lucky Dog”…