Wind Vane vsAutopilot vs Wind Vane with Autpilot Input

[pwillems]

Hi All,

The vessel: 57ft full keeled schooner displacing 30t with hydraulic steering. No autopilot or other self steering installed.

The plan: prep the boat, put the family on board and head off for a circumnavigation.

The question: What would you do?

• Powerful hydraulic autopilot
• Cape horn wind vane
• Cape horn wind vane with input from small tiller pilot

[Terra Nova]

Aitopilot plus wind vane.

[Boatyarddog]

Any powered Autopilot will require sensitive electronics, and gobs of power!
That's a recipe for difficulties.
Keep it simple. Most of these vanes require a 2:1 ratio for steering.
You probably have already checked this out but here's the link for Cape Horns owner manuals.
http://www.capehorn.com/sections/pages/OwnMan.pdf
Good luck!


Sent from my iPad SV Cloud Duster

[charliehows]

autopilot - truth is, most people spend way more time motoring or motorsailing than crossing big gobs of open sea, if you'd already spent years open ocean sailing you wouldnt be asking this question, if you're going to spend money at this stage the best investment would be a decent hydraulic autopilot.

[MarcHall]

WH Autopilot if Will Hamm is still making them and a Windvane.

Primarily use the Autopilot when motoring or close to land/short trips and the Windvane when sailing.

Marc
Crazy Fish - Maintaining, Upgrading and Sailing a Crealock 37 | SV Crazy Fish

[Paul L]

That's a big heavy boat to be asking a wind vane to drive. Are there any sister ships around that have successfully used a windvane on passage? My vote would be a large hydraulic autopilot with a full backup.

[Cap Erict3]

Originally Posted by pwillems

Hi All,



The vessel: 57ft full keeled schooner displacing 30t with hydraulic steering. No autopilot or other self steering installed.



The plan: prep the boat, put the family on board and head off for a circumnavigation.



The question: What would you do?

• Powerful hydraulic autopilot
  
• Cape horn wind vane
  
• Cape horn wind vane with input from small tiller pilot
  

I have a 41' full keel sloop @ 16t and am quite fond of my below decks autopilot. When motoring power consumption is not an issue. Wind genny, solar and power conservation help me keep my house bank charge when sailing.

Keep response level at lowest level needed, maintain sail trim for conditions.




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Looking for another pretty place to work on the boat.

[Snowpetrel]

There is a usefull thread going on over here for a similar boat.

Anyway if it was me I'd go for a homemade auxiliary rudder/ trim tab system and strap a cheap tillerpilot to it for when I motor. But then I'm a cheapskate with deep pockets and short arms. I'd worry about how well the cape horn would cope with such a large boat, but maybe it would do just fine?

[exMaggieDrum]

At a minimum you should have a strong hydraulic autopilot. If you can find a suitable windvane pilot I would add that too - for when you have good wind - no DC power required and quiet. Actually feels really good to see the windvane working. Not sure if you can find one for your size/weight boat but all the usual vendors will help you with that. But get second opinions from others who have used it on that size. Have fun on your adventures. That is a very big boat so I suspect you have a good size genset. If so you can get power for your batteries without running your main engine. But they are still noisy and vibrate so not nearly as nice as just the wind whistling through the rigging.