Bouvaan windvane steering

[Orchidius]

Hi there,

I'm considering some different options on windvane steering systems, and an interesting one from Holland you don't hear much about is the Bouvaan.

It looks like a soldid piece of kit, but you assemble it yourself with the plans. This means its considerably cheaper then the others, but also that parts are very easy to order and the whole thing is very easy to work on.

Does anybody have any experience with them?

[Orchidius]

nobody?

[Sailmonkey]

Nope, never heard of them

[Orchidius]

Now also known as "holland windvane"

HOLLAND WINDVANE Windvane self steering – The high performance stainless steel windvane self steering system. The strong construction jet sensitive mechanism is made of commercially available materials and perfect for the self supporting long distanc

[robert sailor]

I looked over their website and the design looks fine but at around 1000 Euro that's around $1500.00 plus 100-120 hrs labor and there is a fair amount of welding. If your time has zero value then it might work for you but if you felt your time was worth as little as $10.00 per hour then you might be better off buying a used monitor or equivalent as at least the resale value will be there the day you decide you no longer want it, something that a homebuilt vane won't have.

[Orchidius]

I don't value the time I put into future plans/adventures unless financial gain is a factor. I guess one has to be mad to refit a boat, value one's invested hours at 10$ and expect to make the financial picture work .

Anyway, one of the reasons I've been looking at this one is because all the others are ridiculously expensive to buy new, and I'm having a mighty hard time finding any second hand ones...

Where would you look? Pretty much no luck on ebay, all the second hand boat stores around here say they get one in every couple of years and the second hand websites for BE/NL draw blanks as well...

[roverhi]

I bought two and sold one self steering vane on San Francisco Bay Area Craig's list in one year. There were a number of other Monitors for sale at the same time frame. Monitoring Craig's List in large yachting centers would probably turn up a used vane in a couple of months. Have also seen them on Ebay several times a year and people have offered them on this site. The used ones are available fairly regularly if you take the time to look and have a little patience. I might even be able to be talked into selling my Sailomat 601 vane with emergency rudder attachment for $2,000 plus shipping.

The Holland Vane is available factory finished for 1750 and 2750 Euros. The wheel adapter looks to be a steal at 140 Euros compared to want Scanmar wants for theirs.

[JPA Cate]

Orchidius,

This may not be an issue for you, but that windvane adds a lot of clutter to your stern. If it is a factor, then you might want to look at the Windpilot, which is demountable easily and leaves your sugar scoop more clear for boarding.

Unfortunately, they are quite expensive.