I have only used emergency tillers in sailboats--but they have larger rudders and for the most part larger forces. The first time was in a tiller steered vessel when the tiller head casting broke. I had a pair of large Vise grips handy and stabalized the boat with that, until I could get a long pipe wrench on the tiller heard. Another time I lost the push pull wheel cable steering--in a very critical situation. We had one person below steering and the person above deck calling the movement. In that boat the tiller arm was long enough to be effecient--communication was "OK"--and we went about 30 miles this way. The third time, we were having some problems with the hyraulic steering, and the emergency tiller was 9 feet long-the boat was 62 feet, and fortunately the rudder post was under the aft bunk. In this case there was a helm station just above this cabin, and communication was easy. The 9 foot tiller steered the large rudder easily. We found out later that 1000 lbs could be easily put on the rudder head. Certainly if you have a very short tiller, block and tackle can be utalized. I have also seen offset tillers, so that a post or support can be cleared and the boat still steered. The disadvantage of any wing or aux engine where there is not a rudder right aft of the prop, is that the boat has to have way on, in order for the rudder to have any steering effect. All props have some torque effect. This is why we found that pushing a boat with an inflatable, was for more effective than lashing the inflatble along side for "tow". Bob Austin