Tiller and Extension Shipping Tube

One of the problems with traveling to regatta's is having to ship our stuff. As Laser sailors we have it a weeee bit easy, but since we love out long carbon extensions and tillers, we gotta bring em, and here's how I do it. I found that the easiest and safest way to transport my tiller and extensions, and if you choose your battens, and Art if your into that, is to build something that looks a heck of a lot like a pipe bomb. Be warned that you will be funny looks carrying this around at the airport. I haven't done it to this one yet, but like I did for my 54 inch extension, it's a wise idea to plaster it with sailing stickers and stuff along the lines of "Olympic Sailing Equipment, Handle With Care", and airport security usually pulls back the attack dogs and finds that its not absolutely necessary to inspect your bum with rubber gloved finger. Your results may vary.

So here's what I did. I went to Home Depot and bought one of their honkin large sections of 3 inch pipe, I think its 10 feet long(It's big enough to make two, just in case you screw it up, like I did...). I use the black stuff, same stuff I use to roll my sail, it seems pretty sturdy. At one end I used an end cap, and the other I used a a fitting that has a screw in cap. Now before I did that, I added an eyestrap at each end, through bolted with a washer on the inside, I think the bolts were 3/4 of an inch long, worked perfectly and were just long enough. I used locking nuts ( I don't remember what size the bolts or nuts were), probably coulda sealed it all, maybe next time. And from those eye straps I tie a piece of line to form a carry strap. Now my dad made the first one for me a couple of years ago, so this was a bit of a learning experience for me, one thing I've always done with pipe is to sand the heck out of each end so it's nice and rolled so it's smooth. I then learned that you have to use pipe primer and pipe cement on the pipe and the fittings. One thing to remember though is that there are different kinds of pipe, you make sure to check before your buy.