Musto Skiff FAQ – By Andy Tarboton (March 2026)
Tacking sticks are as personal as your favourite shoes in my opinion – they need to feel just right! You need to have the confidence without having to look at the hook each time you cross the boat. When I first started experimenting with tacking sticks, I tried five variations before starting to narrow down on the key features of my preference.
Considerations
Tube diameter and length are very personal considerations, as well as handle position, type of ring and cleat, but at the end of the day, I have found them to make a significant contribution to my boat handling since making the change a few years back.
My Current Set Up
The current set of tacking sticks I use, I got from a local company, and they are made using 10mm OD tube, 400mm long, with the handle 80mm below the top. The ring is bolted through the tube and the area around it reinforced. A tension line runs up the inside of the tube to take the loads while on the trapeze and ties off at the cleat above the tacking stick.
What you need to do
I have the cleat immediately above the tacking stick so that it is always the same height above my hand when adjusting it. Above this, my coarse adjuster runs through a block and back down to end on the top of the cleat. Above this again, I have a fine tune take up to raise or lower the whole system depending on wind conditions for the day. This is primarily because I believe I would trip up or unintentionally uncleat the adjustment line if it were swinging around the deck, resulting in some more Musto Skiff sponsored swimming lessons.
The keen eye will notice some thin lines about a third of the way up from the bottom of the stick – again, the workings of a mad scientist getting lost in the dwellings of his head on a cold, rainy and windy winters day… These are the attachment points for the bungee on the rack, set about a third of the way up so that I am not trying to lever the ring into my trapeze hook with too much resistance from the bungee that would occur if I had the bungee at the bottom of the tube.
Additionally, I have the second tie off point higher up because I effectively reduce the bungee length on strong wind days to keep the tacking sticks from flapping around when I am trying to grab hold of them. I have experienced this when the bungee is set longer for light wind days and then the breeze has built, and hence the bungee has been slack with the lower hooks.
While I have taken a very obsessive approach to it, others have used electrical cable plastic tubing with grip tape around it, broken tiller extensions, or other brands of commercially available tacking sticks with equal effectiveness.
Want to get more rigging tips and advice from various Musto Skiff boat owners? Check out our “Pimp My Skiff” page, which is based on the most asked questions within the class.
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Feature image Credit: © Tim Olin
