"Lee Maxwell" wrote in message
...
Would appreciate any comments as to the pros and cons of tiller steering.
If you go this route for God's sake use a life jacket and kill switch cord
while under way. A good friend didn't and didn't and when he accidently
knocked the tiller hard to the side while being distracted he ended up
overboard several hundred yards from shore with the boat continuing on it's
way in big circles. Luckily, his wife on shore heard the noise when he hit
the side of the boat, and grabbed their binoculars to see why the boat was
going in circles. She managed to get three guys in adjacent lake cabins to
jump in their boats and go look for him. He says he was about to go down
for good when they got to him. Still has a hard time sleeping at night.
Same thing happened to my father 45 years ago and the boat came back and ran
over him. Luckily he was able to dive deep enough that only his coat was
chewed up a little..and he wasn't too far from shore to swim in.