Selfsteering gear ..

[Don C L]

Back in the day...(uh-oh, here it comes...) there were a few permutations of a horizontal axis wind vane that ran lines to the tiller. One brand name was QME, with a plywood blade and lead weights, and it worked really well for my little 24 footer on most headings. I found a really (old, but) professionally made model for my current boat but haven't mounted it yet. I'll let you know how it fares.....
Here is a shot of one from Letcher's book:
Cruisers & Sailing Forums - Don C L's Album: Adventures with an old school vane! - Picture
By the way, if you haven't seen it yet, you should:
"Self Steering for Sailing Craft" by John S. Letcher, Jr.

[hpeer]

I have a wind game self built by previous owner from this book. It works well on our 33’, 16 ton cutter. I also put a tiller in it and can steer the boat with a tiller pilot.

https://www.amazon.com/Wind-Vane-Sel.../dp/0877421587

This is for an auxillary rudder type system which has advantages and disadvantages. Works better on smaller boats. Full rudder and steering redundancy.

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by gmakhs

Why not add a seccond transform hugging rudder ? And then a trim tab to it ? The construction of the rudder is not difficult can be a fiberglass foam or fiberglass balsa or fiberglass plywood sandwich, then the trim tab can be made just from fiber glass .
You can hug them in the transform and have an emergency rudder and autopilot .
If you go with this option you need to reinforce the transform by making a T with foam or balsa sandwich .
All them easy to do and cost less than 1000 in material .
Plywood for all might cost you 20 euro
Fiberglass resin and mat with gellcoat let's say 100 euro
Fittings another 200 (if you pay for the welding )
Easy project and you will learn a lot .

This is what is already designed in the Belcher book I cited above. Complete drawings.

[winjamerk]

There are many modern and not-so-modern windvane systems for tillers and regular wheel/chain/quadrant arrangements. My query is to find one that works on worm-geared systems which appear to have a different wheel rotation than regular wheel quadrant systems. So, I repeat, is there anyone out there with self-steering on a worm-geared steering mechanism working on their boat.

[mitiempo]

Originally Posted by winjamerk

There are many modern and not-so-modern windvane systems for tillers and regular wheel/chain/quadrant arrangements. My query is to find one that works on worm-geared systems which appear to have a different wheel rotation than regular wheel quadrant systems. So, I repeat, is there anyone out there with self-steering on a worm-geared steering mechanism working on their boat.

Ask a manufacturer, ideally Scanmar which makes the Monitor as well as other vane steering systems.

[hpeer]

The OP, if he’s still around, should check out this discussion, very on point.

Self steering wind vanes

And a site about a guy who built one using some commercial hits. Very good description with pics.

https://sailinventor.wordpress.com/2...-own-diy-gear/

[roverhi]

I love self steering vanes. If my boat sails, the vane is steering whether day sailing short tacking out the harbor channel or sailing to Tahiti. Even bought the vane first before I bought latest boat.

Sailed to SoPac in our Westsail 32 with an Aries Pendulum Servo Vane I bought from Nick Franklin. No autopilot so it steered if the boat was moving under sail. Had a problem with swelling plastic bearings when we got to the Marquesas that I cured permanently with a pen knife. Subsequent owners of the boat sailed it to SoPac twice. Great vane and think the coarse adjustment mechanism were/are the best of all vanes. Our product - Aries Vane Gear - your wind vane as best crewmember!

Did a solo TransPac on my Pearson 35 with a WindPilot Pacific Plus. It's an Auxiliary Rudder vane with the rudder steered by a Pendulum Servo Vane. No lines to the tiller or wheel so great for a center cockpit but works on all boats. Steered the boat without a problem to Hawaii DDW in light winds which is the worst point of sail and wind conditions for a vane gear. Probably the best design for very low drain tiller pilot steering input for the vane. l https://www.windpilot.com/n/wind/en/prod/plus//

Have a WindPilot Pacific Light Pendulum Servo vane on my Sabre 28. Steers the boat great and very lightweight hanging off the stern of a small boat. For both the Plus and Light vanes swapped out the plywood wind sensing vane for a larger corrugated plastic vane which greatly helped light air performance. https://www.windpilot.com/n/wind/en/prod/lite//

You can do a home brew but it's not an easy thing to accomplish in design and without some metal fabrication skills. Tuning the vane to work with your boat is not an easy proposition and know of several homebuilt attempts that were eventually scrapped and commercial vane fitted.

If cost is a consideration, used vanes regularly come on the market at quite affordable prices. Especially cheap if you give your labor in designing and building a homebuilt any value whatsoever and the challenge of getting it to work.

[dcstrng]

I’ve been looking at the Hydrovane (aux rudder) as well as the Pacific Plus for our lightly used ODay 30. Anyone have comparative experience with them?
My other boats have had keel-attached or partially hung rudders, so this is my first experience with the spade – love the nimble handling (well, sometimes…), but want the self-steerer to be an auxiliary rudder for when I screw up and KO the regular rudder. At least from what I can glean online, the Pacific Plus is more expensive by a wide margin – is there a liability in the Hydrovane, or….
Oh, our cruising is mostly Bay and inshore – maybe a retirement jaunt to the Bahamas… no southern capes for us…
All experience and/or opinions gratefully accepted… Thanks !!

[roverhi]

The 35' boat next to me just mounted a Hydrovane. They've had limited experience with it but say it's worked well in a variety of conditions from 25K to light air sailing. The Hydrovane replaced an Aires that they bought used and were happy with. It needed some new pieces after 4 1/2 years cruising around the Caribbean, Tahiti, and Hawaii on their boat and untold miles on the previous owner's boat. With Nick's Daughter getting up there in years they wanted something newer with a more guaranteed parts source. They went with the Hydrovane because of the Auxiliary rudder backup and would fit better with wheel steering.

I've always been a little leery of the light air performance of the Hydrovane because the aux rudder steering force is totally from wind. People the Hydrovanes work, though. Have had no issues with the light air, or any air, steering with the WindPilot Pacific Plus but they are a bit pricey.

One caveat with an auxiliary rudder vane, they do affect the the maneuverability of the boat in tight quarters like getting into a slip. The Pearson 35 is rudder challenged without the vane. With the full keel it likes to go straight ahead to the point that I had major issues getting the boat in the slip with the vane mounted. Finally rigged up lines to the wind vane so I can spoof it into steering the boat. Greatly increased close quarters turning ability. A fin keel/spade rudder boat wouldn't be as affected as my long keel boat, I'm sure.

[gmakhs]

The auxiliary rudder of hydrovabe is quite big , so I believe if you attach a tiller kind of connection to it it may as well improve the manaurabilty of the full keel boat ,I might be wrong it's just an idea.

[Arthurwg]

Reading about the Golden Globe, I see that contestant Uku Randmaa used a Hydrovane on his Rustler 36, saying it worked perfectly in all conditions. But in one photo I see the boat also has an Aries mounted on the centerline with the Hydrovane next to it off to port. Wonder why he had both on the boat. One thing I do like about the HV is that it required no lines, blocks etc to the tiller or wheel.

[El Pinguino]

If I had the money at the time I would now have a Hydrovane.... as it is I have what I have ... a rather large aux rudder with t/tab...much considerably larger than the hydrovane...

Backing up? There are two damping lines on the stub tiller... usually set to allow maybe 3 or 4 * of 'rudder' so she doesn't oversteer.... motoring or backing up into a caleta I just haul the two lines as tight as I can so as to imobilise the rudder... works OK

If I know I will have to make a sharp turn... lets say a 90* alteration to starboard into a slip.... I will let one of the damping lines fly .. in this case the starboard one ... so that the aux rudder assists rather than hinders the turn.

If I don't do this life becomes less than optimum...

[hpeer]

Ping,

On our 33’er I can reach the aux rudder tiller from the helm, if I do a little ballet like manuver. . Then I can use the aux rudder to assist with backing. I can lock the main rudder and steer fairly well with just the aux. not tried that in reverse just yet.

I see various advantages to an aux rudder set up. One being that if motoring I can use to main rudder to offset the prop walk leaving the aux rudder neutral.

[Pegu Club]

We use a Monitor wind vane, on our Bristol 29.9, works great.
One can set it up as an emergency rudder as well. Stoutly built, and uses no amps.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Hesti

With the last boats, self steering gear has not been that much of a big topic: We had a tiller pilot (switched off after adjusting) or another means of blocking the tiller, slightly oversheeted jib and from windward to half wind situations, the boats kept course reasonabely well until there was a change of wind strength. In the end, I still steered a lot by hand.

With the next boat, we may want to go a step further for longer passages. Electric tiller steering is not a welcome option: It is hard on the battery charge and the whine-whine-whine-whine is unwelcome.

Are there known tricks to lead the sheets to the tiller or is wind vane pendulum the only option? If wind vane pendulum: Which brand? Or are there good plans for self building?

Input welcome, Hesti

I have the zip files for diy windlass from Walt Murray . Any interested shoot me a pm I will email it ( to big to post and not available online anymore)