Heaving to with windvane pendulum down.

[Bregts]

Does anyone has experience with heaving to while the windvane rudder/pendulum is down in the water.

I have the latest model of the Aries windvane with the possibility to tilt the rudder up while not in use. Raising or lowering the rudder is only possible in very calm weather so we always put the rudder down before departure and it stays down until arrival even if the windvane is not in use. (The wooden vane is only put on the windvane if we use the windvane steering.)

A few times last year I was in a situation where I wanted to heave to but as always on any long passage the windvane pendulum was down. The problem is that when heave to the pendulum get's slammed against the windvane lower 'arms/stops every time a wave passes. This generates a lot of force and I can see the whole Aries mounting move and twist a little bit. It looks like something will break sooner or later when doing this so I switched to sailing without sails but with the windvane steering as alternative.

If really needed I can tilt the windvane pendulum up but I have to hang upside down on the stern of the boat. Not something you want to do in heavy weather conditions when one goes heave to.

Does anyone found a solution for this problem?

[roverhi]

If the wheel or the tiller is lashed with the servo oar centered, that should take care of it slamming from side to side.

[Albro359]

With my Fleming wind vane, we just used to disconnect the wheel and heave to. Lash the wheel in the appropriate position. Tie the vane lines off to keep the vane in line with the wind...and that was that.
To get out of it, we just unlashed the wheel, came around and when under way setup the wind vane again, and that was that.
There was never any problem with the oar slamming....
Cheers
Alan