I'm not "vane"! I have no idea, just wondering

[boatsail]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

I had and have an old RVG system that uses a trim tab on an auxiliary rudder. It worked ok on most points of sail but not well when sailing toward running from a broad reach. I prefer a Monitor if you can find one cheap enough.

Your drawing is similar to one I've seen in one of my books and has me confused as to where the vane is mounted. In the drawing it is just kind of hanging out there in the air. If I could see one or see a photo of one mounted I'd be able to understand it a little better.

kind regards,

chck out the photos..I would imagine it to be mounted to the stern so it is out of the way of everything.

[boatsail]

more like the top photo in regards to its construction, but similar to the bottom one in regards to what its purpose.

I run a business and It is successful. I know about not reinventing the wheel. I built my business by copying what others did that I could see worked and it did. All about working smarter not harder. I will contradict that by saying that we now have solar and electric instead of(and as an alternate choice) generators and gas engines, so something can always be better or different.

This idea was mainly thought up as a simple solution to steering and ***I wanted to find out if it already existed***, not invent one from scratch.

Lots ok knowledge on here and I figured this would be one of the best places to check and see if anyone has seen such a vane.

[charliehows]

ummm, how far in did you get on that book on self-steering you said you had?

[roverhi]

Believe you could buy just the wind vane part of the RVG vane to use to control a trim tab or other servo of your own invention. The complete system was an auxillary rudder controlled by a trim tab bolted to the transom. The vane was connected via cables to the trim tab and mounted remotely. The wind vane part was a horizontally pivot type made out of aluminum.

[Adventurebound]

I played around with a windvane which had a trim tab attached directly to the windvane. Unbalanced forces wanted to make the boat go either to port or starboard so attached an adjustable bungy cord to the tiller to trim out those forces.. Had fair results but got a Raymarine auto tiller which worked better overall. Main fault is when sailing very close hauled into wind. The response time of the auto tiller is too slow and at times you are forced into a tack. Solution is to sail a bit further from the headwind when useing the autotiller.

[SkiprJohn]

Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual by Nigel Calder 1990 edition page 376 had a diagram of the RVG system and a good discussion of trim tab and servo pendulum systems. I'm not certain if that will help you but it might be a start if you haven't already read quite a bit about them.
kind regards,

[SkiprJohn]

Wind-Vane Self-Steering How to plan and make you own by Bill Belcher is another as is Self-Steering for Sailing Craft by John S. Letcher, Jr.

All very good and technical information.

[Normanby]

My copy of Self-Steering for Sailing Craft by John S. Letcher just arrived in the post!
Got some interesting reading ahead of me...

What about vanes on the backstay?

I was looking at the Pardey's Taleisin:
Lin and Larry Pardey's Boat Taleisin | YachtPals.com

And they have some kind of furling 'vane' on the backstay, and as far as I can see there's no trim tab or auxiliary rudder. How would such a vane generate enough torque to manhandle the tiller?

Anyone familiar with this system?
I'm keen to find a self-steering method that's simple and does not involve all that ugly scaffolding on my pretty transom.

Matt

[Normanby]

Oops!
Just did a more thorough search and found that the Pardeys use a "Freehand" windvane steering, which can only be used on outboard rudders, utilising a trim tab.
Dang.