Windyselfsteering

[Mike1956]

Windyselfsteering from Croatia.

Just wondering if anyone is using this?. Nothing found on internet about it. No reviews, nothing on forums.

Thanks

Mike

[mait]

Do you mean this https://www.windyselfsteering.com/selfsteering/
It is from Estonia, not Croatia.

[Mike1956]

Dear Mait,

Very sorry, yes you are correct.

I am hoping to hear from someone who is using or has experience of

Windyselfsteering from ESTONIA.

Thanks

Mike

[mait]

I've seen at least two here in local marinas but have no experience myself.
The guy developed it a few years ago right after completing his circumnavigation on a 31ft B31 and has sold a few
There are some videos on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bnb...ature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIY-zrZ_NSI

[Mike1956]

Thanks Mait,

They look to be a wonderful piece of kit. I just thought I would like to get someones unbiased opinion before purchasing one.

Mike

[JPA Cate]

Hi, Mike,

There is also a wind vane steering system called Wind Pilot available in Europe, and probably world wide, if you pay for shipping, ;-), Scanmar have one, also Ares, as well.

There are different styles, too. Jim made an auxiliary rudder one for our previous boat.

Ann

[Hoodsail]

Mike, I am looking at wind vanes, specifically windyselfsteering unit..did you install one? Curious if you did what your impressions are..cost is considerably less than Sailomat, Windpilot, Cape Horn, Aries, etc.
Thnks Dave

[wholybee]

I've never seen or heard of it, but just judging from the videos posted, that one is not working very well. Even the videos posed on the manufactures site the vane isn't doing well. The vane should mostly be straight up, and only move to the side a little bit to make small corrections. It should rarely go all the way over, and never go back and forth all the way from one side to the other.

It looks to be a design flaw in that vane. The bottom of the vane appears to be square, so only being slightly off course will push it all the way over. It should be cut at an angle, so that as it move to the side the angle to the wind will change. So if you are only slightly off course, the vane will only move slightly.

Hard to explain, but I would pass on that design. The boat will be sailing in a slalom course, not a straight line.

For comparison, here is my monitor steering my boat:
https://youtu.be/yMxONLeqq_Q

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by wholybee

I've never seen or heard of it, but just judging from the videos posted, that one is not working very well. Even the videos posed on the manufactures site the vane isn't doing well. The vane should mostly be straight up, and only move to the side a little bit to make small corrections. It should rarely go all the way over, and never go back and forth all the way from one side to the other.



It looks to be a design flaw in that vane. The bottom of the vane appears to be square, so only being slightly off course will push it all the way over. It should be cut at an angle, so that as it move to the side the angle to the wind will change. So if you are only slightly off course, the vane will only move slightly.



Hard to explain, but I would pass on that design. The boat will be sailing in a slalom course, not a straight line.



For comparison, here is my monitor steering my boat:

https://youtu.be/yMxONLeqq_Q

To be fair, in the top video it’s sailin FM dead down, so every time a wave passes the boat the wind and boat direction are changed.

[Hoodsail]

thanks for your thoughts and observations, so I went back to look at the videos.
Noticed that the boat's wake left a straight line astern and wheel/tiller are moving marginally, so more confident in design. Of course, selection bias plays a part here, as I can't see the manufacturer posting videos with their vane not functioning as advertised.
thnks