Hi Orchidus,

Are you still after a self steering vane?

A hydrovane just came up for sale in the UK for 1600 GBP

Jann

Hi Orchidus,

You and I share some things in common. We are both looking for equipment which is uncommon, expensive, heavy and bulky, and used by a small number of people engaged in a unique activity.

Passagemaking "gear" does come up if you are patient. People do buy boats which have this gear and strip it off and sell it. If you are patient and diligent you will find your gear. You have one benefit over me which is that being Belgian you can easily search in French ... and the French are great long distance sailors. Do your google searches also in French, and be patient. It took me a year to find my hydrovane, six months for my diesel burner, I'm still looking for some barbarossa winches (but I found some on Marktplaats last week, which it seems I just missed!) ... be patient!

Fudge... The issue with this type of equipment is that there are very little available in my area. It's the type of thing mostly seen on passage-making boats, and 99,9999% of boats here don't even leave the slip when it blows more then 4bft. My marina has 2500 boats in the water, and in the entire region I have seen 1 (on the concrete) with a windvane steering system =/

Hi Orchidius,

I was in the UK at the time, and the seller was kind enough to drop it off.

You might well want to consider limiting your purchase to driving distance ... so BE, NL, DE, FR, UK, and just picking it up in your car.

Postage would be complicated. Probably strapped on to a pallet would work best.

Hi there,

I saw your post on my topic about finding self-steering gear abroad. Many thanks for that, I've fiddled with google a bit and I'm hoping to find what I'm looking for in the near future. I've just come to think of the logistical problem though... Most of those units are fairly large and I can imagine shipping is a pain. How much did you pay for shipping for yours from the UK? How was it packaged?

Thanks!