Tiller length

A while back I fell onto my tiller mid gybe and long story short ended up taking an inch or two off its length whilst fixing it in my workshop. I was about to replace the tiller extension anyway so just bought a longer extension so that when hiking the overall length of tiller plus extension is the same as before but obviously a greater percentage of the total length is in the extension rather than the tiller.

A shorter tiller will make the steering more responsive/twitchy (i.e. it will take slightly less movement in the extension to achieve the same rudder blade angle. Unless it was a good few inches though you probably won't notice much difference.

When i swopped my older Merlin for a (new to me) Winder, i found that the tiller was a couple of inches shorter and had to adapt my position in the boat when hoisting the spinnaker as otherwise i could not locate the end of the tiller between my legs while hoisting the kite. Otherwise not a problem as it was easy to lengthen the adjustable tiller extension to allow for the shorter tiller. Didn't notice any increase in twitchiness between the two boats - both Canterbury Tales designs.

If you have to swivel the tiller extension “round the back” as you tack then the shorter tiller will pull you back in the boat.

There was one boat that i sailed that this just felt wrong, as I wasn’t happy having to move aft as I tacked.

In Solos there is a case for a shorter tiller since this gives room for a leg between the back of the centreboard case and the tiller to brace yourself against the leeward tank on a screaming run.