How to Make A Tiller Extension

In the last Wednesday evening race I lost my tiller extension... It mysteriously lost it's pin from the universal joint and my custom work fell overboard, much like my first iPhone. I bought a tiller extension for the next race, but I just never liked the way it felt compared to the T-bar arrangement. A coworker gave me the idea when I saw he was just throwing away a pair of ski poles. I was a universal joint and two screws away from having everything I'd need to make my own. So I did. I still had the other pole so, let's do it again. Only this time I'll make some improvements.
First, instead of cutting a smaller section of ski pole for the T part I used an .89 cent piece of plumbing and epoxied that into the tube. Second, I didn't tape off the holes at either end so it can breath. Whatever, $26 for the universal joint plus a piece of plumbing and some tape vs $100 for a new one? Yeah, I'm a cheap skate.