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What kind of boat do you have? Where do you sail?
The neatest way to leave the tiller is to use an auto tillerpilot. Not only can you leave it for a "very brief period" but you can leave it for several hours, if your water is big enough, like crossing the Sea of Cortez. This is the best way to watch your boat sail into the sunset without you. Don't worry about the load on the battery. If you balance your sailplan so the helm is slightly to weather the tiller pilot will only make sporadic corrections with small movements. I get 90% standby and 10% "work". Standby uses very little power and I only use it a few hours a day. My battery will last several weeks even with GPS and cabin lights. I don't have one, but I suspect a 25 watt VHF, on watch all day, would use more power than all my loads combined.
The next best way is to replace the gudgeon bearings with sintered bronze oil impregnated flanged bushings from your industrial bearing supplier. They are cheap. You might have to ream out the bore with a 1/2" drill. To push the pintles into or out of the bushings it is necessary to "work" the rudder assembly side to side while applying force. (Don't forget to pin a pintle.) These bushings are very tight yet very smooth, and because of the oil there is no stick/slip feel when steering. In fact, they are so tight that if you are steering with a balanced helm, you can leave the tiller and the friction will hold you straight. This also eliminated the knock I had with loose plastic bushings. I love it! Look, Ma, no hands! And also no messy lines to rig and fuss with at the helm station. Others who have steered my boat have commented on the "neatness" of it.
Next, you can rig bungees, lines or a Davis Tiller Tamer. It's messy. It's inconvenient. It's no better than tight bushings. Lines only work if the helm is balanced, when there is very little force on the rudder. Our S2's are some of the best-balanced boats out there and you might get them to sail straight for somewhat less than a minute. I have heard sailors on other models claim to lock down a tiller and walk wherever on their boat for up to 15 minutes, but I have never seen it done. I have never done it on the dozens of boats I've sailed. Balancing the helm means balancing the boat and walking around upsets that balance. (Maybe they have boats so heavy that shifting their weight makes no difference?)
When singlehanding you wear your PFD don't you? You can lock down your tiller and fall off, and if by some heavenly stroke of luck the boat remains balanced it will sail away. By the time you swim to shore you won't care where the boat is. Most likely it will round up and you can swim to it. If you are paranoid you can rig a long trailing line and a foot loop to pull down as an aid in boarding from the water.
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6.9 Helm Minder -- Steve Howard -- 7/27/03 7:29a.m.
Tillerpilot -- Law Powell S2 6.9 #61 Denver -- 7/27/03 10:33a.m.