and that's why i'm dropping cash on a windvane

[gjordan]

Monte, down wind sailing takes much more effort from the autopilot or windvane, than close hauled. Most boats that are trimmed correctly will sail up wind with only little corrections of the helm, therefore only minor corrections for the autopilot, but put the boat downwind and most (not all) boats will need much more helm input to keep on course. If you are a small crew and your autopilot breaks you will be a very tired crew.___Just my 2 cents worth.____Grant.

[engele]

We have both a wheelpilot and a vane. The vane is for sale (in the classified section of this site). I bought the wheelpilot as the backup and ended up never using the vane. To each his own.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by boatsail

Any pics to share?

Answering for Ann...

Sorry, but no we don't have any at this time. We sold that boat a decade ago and the pix that we have in the computer don't include any or the vane. The chap who bought her took off the vane (among the many stupid and destructive things also done) and binned it. The current owner has put a Fleming on in its place, but don't have any feedback from him yet.

Designing and building that vane was perhaps the single most satisfying thing I ever did to/for a boat and it steered us for many thousands of miles.

Cheers,

Jim

[Exile]

Any thoughts on boat size/weight limitations on fitting a vane, or is it more about balancing sails? In my case, she's big (47' LOA; 37' LWL) and she's heavy (20T), but she's also very well-balanced & easy to sail.

Thanks.

[Alasdair]

I use a CPT Wheelpilot. These units are very solidly built and are capable of steering much heavier displacement boats than the Raymarine Wheelpilot. I have been pleased with my CPT's performance. It is not a smart pilot like the Raymarine but will steer well to a set Compass Heading with a low AMP draw of about 30 amp/day. They still make them new in USA and I was surprised by the great level of service provided. There is a fellow cruising the Pacific on his CSY 44 SV 'Soggy Paws' who uses his CPT as a primary selfsteer option with windvane as a backup. He has an excellent blog with heaps of great info. He likes the CPT as it is repairable at sea with basic electronics knowlege and inexpensive parts from digikey. In the blog there is info on a chap who made his CPT Pilot 'smarter' by using a Raymarine Control unit wired to the CPT Pilot drive unit.
The CPT works well for me but is I were to venture far offshore I would want a backup method of self steer; also plenty of sparesparts like belts and sheerpins ect.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by colemj

I would modify this to state that most people with wind vanes have a secondary tiller or wheel pilot as backup. I have met very few cruisers with full, rugged windvanes and below deck pilots (which are the equivalent comparisons). Those few that did almost exclusively used their electronic AP and viewed their vane as backup.

This described our setup Mark. Our primary auto is an Aries. We also have an undersized TP, but it is only viable in calm conditions, mostly when we're forced to motor. I would have opted for a proper below-deck pilot, in addition to the windvane, but our barn door rudder has no below-deck quadrant to latch on to.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

This described our setup Mark. Our primary auto is an Aries. We also have an undersized TP, but it is only viable in calm conditions, mostly when we're forced to motor. I would have opted for a proper below-deck pilot, in addition to the windvane, but our barn door rudder has no below-deck quadrant to latch on to.

Have you tried attaching the TP to the Aries counterweight or vane? I've done it couple times just temporary with tie wraps and bits of string, seems to work fine with the Aries doing the work and the TP telling it what to do. Very low power draw, which is actually a bit irrelevant as there's not much point unless you're motoring.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by conachair

Have you tried attaching the TP to the Aries counterweight or vane? I've done it couple times just temporary with tie wraps and bits of string, seems to work fine with the Aries doing the work and the TP telling it what to do. Very low power draw, which is actually a bit irrelevant as there's not much point unless you're motoring.

I haven't done this yet conachair, but plan to. Our vane hangs off the end of our boomkin, so there is no easily accessible structure to attach the TP to. I'll have to build some sort of bracket to support the TP.

It's on the list of projects ... the long list .