Tiller wiggles while sailing, engine off. Pretty constant. Is this common or is something wrong with my boat? Anyone know why? Thanks

You have wear on you gudgeons and pintles. Very timely - read this post.

Taking out the play will remove that wiggle?

Assuming the slop is on the pivot pins. You should also check to make sure where the tiller stainless steel bracket attaches to the tiller that the hole in the tiller isn't elongated.

The tiller is tight on the rudder. No play at all. It seems that if the cause is slop in the gudgeons, there would be less wiggle on a reach when there weather helm. I will look for that. Thanks!

I don’t know if this applies, but aside from eliminating any play in the system, is the rudder wiggling because it is no longer symmetrical as the water flows past both sides?

Our boat has a little bit of play if you jiggle the tiller while sailing upwind, but our rudder would not wiggle on its own while sailing.

(This is our first year with a J/30, so I don’t know the boat inside and out)

My first year too. On past boats I had, a wiggly tiller meant seaweed fouling on the keel or rudder. I would just back her down with the motor and blow it off. I tried that and nothing changed. Its very wiggly under power. I figured that is just prop turbulence. But, still does it under sail too.

Found why the tiller was wiggling. Just put a fresh bottom on the boat. It was fouled pretty bad. Especially the rudder. She steers smooth as silk now. Nuts, huh.

I posted this 6 months after the last bottom job. It’s horrible how heavily fouling the water is on this river. Guess I need to haul her every season.