Whats the best wind vane to buy?

[Mapoftassie]

Hi!
I just wanted to ask if anyone could help suggest a wind vane to suit an Adams 40' Steel (15 Tonnes) slightly extended stern with davits and dingy attached. I have read that if your going on extended voyages to fit one, as Autopilots tend to fail when you need them most? Any advice appreciated.

Kind Regards
Mapoftassie

[JPA Cate]

Hi, Mapoftassie,

Your big difficulty will be that the dinghy in davits will disturb the air flow to the vane, and may, therefore, affect how well it will steer the boat, and make it a bit fussy to learn how to make it work best. But, as you've read, it will steer, silently without power drain, for whole passages, averaging the right course, but not nearly as precise as an electronic autopilot.

Any good one should do you. We used to have a Standfast 36, and Jim built an auxiliary rudder type wind vane for that boat, which had pinched ends, fin keel, skeg hung rudder, and benefitted from the added lateral plane aft.

Good luck with your search....and happy holidays.

Ann

[Mapoftassie]

Thanks, Ann!

I will look into removing the tender from the davits, as I have 2 tenders I may sell the aluminium one and keep the ribbed one secured to the foredeck and Place or remove Vane as required.
Kind Regards
Mapo

[Allied39]

My primary deciding consideration was the use of dissimilar metals in many windvane designs.

I looked at a used aries and considered what it would take to service IE: remove stainless pins from aluminum body and rejected the idea in a millisecond.

Full stainless for me thankyou. Stainless and aluminum and salt equal problems. Sooner or later.

This post is a response to the original post seeking opinions have absolutely no interest in dealing with those that want to argue or troll.

[Mapoftassie]

Hi Allied39

I am in total agreeance. I won't do that!

[roverhi]

The designs that are out there are pretty proven. You first need to decide on type, Pendulum Servo like the Aries, etc or Auxillary rudder like the WindPilot Pacific Plus.

PS designs require lines run from the vane to the wheel/tiller as they steer with the boat's rudder. They are more precise in their steering and develop more power the faster the boat goes. Running the control lines can be a problem and issues with the boats steering can hurt their performance in light winds. Cape Horn, Monitor, WindPilot Pacific, Aries, SailoMat and others all work. Have done many thousands of miles with an Aires and think it's the best because of the way they set the heading and their hell for stout construction but they are probably a bit heavier than most of the others. The Sailomat, Cape Horn and WindPilot rotate their servo rudder out of the water for easiest stowage. The WindPilot and Sailomat are simple bolt on mounts on a transom stern boat. Cape Horn is the most elegant mount but does require a rather large hole in the stern for most boats. Monitor requires multiple cut to length tubes but is probably the easiest to mount on canoe sterns.

Auxillary rudder systems give you a backup steering source but can have major issues with control of the boat in tight quarters and in reverse especially on a full keel boat. Hydrovane and WindPilot Pacific Plus are the two most common vanes. Have done a TransPac with a WPPP and it steered flawlessly DDW in lightish conditions the whole way. Handling my full keel boat in the marina has been a challenge and forget having control in reverse. Have mitigated the control situation going forward using lines to the vane so it will help steer the boat. You can hook up a tiller pilot to these vanes to get a super low drain compass steered system which might be their greatest asset other than wind specific steering.

I had an Aires on our W32, have a WindPilot Pacific Plus on the Pearson 35 and WindPilot Pacific Light on the Sabre 28. All have done yeoman duty without complaint or NOISE. Autopilot's constant whining gets on my nerves right quick. As soon as the sails are up the vanes steer the boat whether it's daysailing out of the Marina or a 2500 mile ocean passage. It's really nice not to be chained to the tiller/wheel whether in a channel, coastal sailing, or long passages. Have had autopilot as backup but only use it for powering.

[Mapoftassie]

Thanks, Roverhi!

That's a very good description and I will consider a Windpilot for sure. I think it will be between a Windpilot & a Hydrovane, or Monitor! I will see which one suits a 15tonne steel hull best via the forums and any other i can find as its too expensive to try and be disappointed.
Kind Regards
Mapo

[carstenb]

We've used our old Aries for almost 4 years now with zero issues, having it steer us over 15000nm of passages. We mount it for passages (takes about 1 1/2 hours) and dismount it when we arrive (takes an hour) and use our autopilot for coastal cruising.

I'm not sure why one of the posters said he has stainless steel bolts on the Aries - we have no stainless on our Aries. It requires little in the way of maintenance - simply pour a couple of buckets of fresh water over it before dismounting (to remove salt) and there is one little hole that says "oil". Other wise I spray all bolts etc with WD40 whenever I mount(dismount).

Roverhi is correct - first you need to decide if you want a servo-pendulum or an auxiliary rudder

[geoff3nebel]

Hydrovane - without a moment’s hesitation.
It can be mounted off-center if you have a boarding ladder.
I have one on my 41’ Westerly Oceanlord and it’s brilliant on all points of sail

[Ramona]

Originally Posted by Allied39

My primary deciding consideration was the use of dissimilar metals in many windvane designs.

I looked at a used aries and considered what it would take to service IE: remove stainless pins from aluminum body and rejected the idea in a millisecond.

Full stainless for me thankyou. Stainless and aluminum and salt equal problems. Sooner or later.

This post is a response to the original post seeking opinions have absolutely no interest in dealing with those that want to argue or troll.

There are excellent Youtube videos that show how to dismantle an Aries windvane. My Aries is over 30 years old and there are no problems with the mixed metals. It looks new. The Aries are mostly alloy but it is very heavy. Heavier than a Monitor that is all SS. During the recent Golden Globe race SS Monitors suffered broken welds. My previous windvane is a SS home built replica of a monitor. If your building your own then stainless steel is the easiest and cheapest way to go. Also has the advantage of being easy to modify and update.
The video is of my second unit I built and it was modified a few times after I made the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isw529SdN8s&t=57s

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Mapoftassie

Hi!
I just wanted to ask if anyone could help suggest a wind vane to suit an Adams 40' Steel (15 Tonnes) slightly extended stern with davits and dingy attached. I have read that if your going on extended voyages to fit one, as Autopilots tend to fail when you need them most? Any advice appreciated.

Kind Regards
Mapoftassie

The auto helm from scanmar has a remote wind vane head which deals with the problem of the airflow around the davits.

[Jason Flare]

I have been studying the various wind vane self steering for our Formosa 41 and had settled on 2 possibilities.

The first is the Windpilot Pacific Plus II. I like it for its servo pendulum controlling an auxiliary rudder with no lines led to the wheel or tiller. I dislike that the auxiliary rudder doesn’t seem to easily adapt for use as an emergency rudder.

The second is the Hydrovane. I like that the rudder can be used as an emergency rudder and the rudder seems to be easily removed while at anchor or in a slip.

In the past I had looked into the Autohelm sold by Scanmar. It looked great for a boat with davits and a mizzen boom but research online showed owners weren’t happy with its downwind performance.

We also own an Albin Vega with a Windpilot Pacific Light and we love it although we haven’t sailed that boat in 6 years and it remains stored in a warehouse.

We will likely go with the Hydrovane.

Talk me out of it. ��

ETA: There’s supposed to be a Smiley Face after, “Talk me out of it.”

[MicHughV]

..I had a Monitor vane on my Roberts 38 steel ketch for about 15 years.
..I bought one used that I had salvaged from a Marine Salvage yard as they can be pricey.

..It worked great, but not perfect.

..Some issues..

..(1) My boat was a center cockpit so the steering lines had to come a long way from the unit to the steering pedestal. Though I used steel cables to reduce stretch, it did not eliminate the stretch, which caused some deviation in the steering.
..(2) the steering cables had to go thru' several turning blocks to arrive at the steering wheel, with each turn adding frictional resistance.
..(3) when the unit was in use, the steering cables ran over my lazarette hatch, so I could not get into that hatch underway.
..I had rigged two small turnbuckles in the steering lines where these passed over the lazarette hatch so I could disconnect these lines when not in use or if I needed to get in there.
..(4) when setting a course, the control unit at the steering wheel was comprised of a series of round holes around a disc, so when I connected, I had to use the nearest hole, which was not always the ideal hole.
..(5) The Monitor is a " wind " vane, so it is 100% important, that your boat is perfectly trimmed before activating the vane, otherwise the unit will want to hunt all the time, looking for that perfect slot.
..(6) Being a " wind" vane, the unit is easily affected by a change in wind direction in large seas or swells, when there might be too much or too little wind at the top of a wave or in the trough.
..(7) when the wind direction changes, the Monitor will follow along, so a watchful eye must be kept on your course and the apparent wind direction.

..Ok, having said all that, some trial and error will soon get you familiar with the unit's habits.
..For me, I tended to put the boat under a tighter course when using the vane, so if the boat fell off a bit, the sails would remain full and not flutter around when heading up..
..Different points of sail also make a difference....downwind being the most difficult as the apparent wind over the vane gear gets reduced, also the boat can be slewed one way or another by a wave..

..At the end of the day, it worked sufficiently well where I could leave the boat sailing unattended for several hours. The course would not be a straight line. The boat will take a zig-zag course as it cannot " anticipate" any boat, wind or wave movement.

On a trade wind voyage these units come into their own but any voyage in areas with constantly changing wind directions is going to require some attention.

It is a sturdily made device and never once gave me any problems. I did fashion several different sized plywood vanes which I would use depending on apparent wind speed.

Hope this discourse provides some thoughts for you to ponder.

[akopac]

Auto helm is what we have. The auxiliary rudder with trim tab has bicycle cables going up to the vane on the Davits. Works awesome. Auxiliary rudder doubles as emergency rudder and I have an autopilot that can substitute for the wind vane blade. Excuse the name. I was applying it when I took the picture.