Pendulum wind vane -V- auxiliary rudder vane

[SimonV]

Do you use either of these, I know the Pendulum types such a Monitor are very popular, but I can also see the advantages of the Auxiliary rudder type such as AutoHelm. What are your views?

[Steve Pope]

I have a trim tab onto my main transom hung rudder, the trim tab is set back about 500mm from the back edge of the rudder. It has been operated by a horizontal vane rather than a vertical type as in the Auto-Helm system. I have been looking into either picking up a second hand Auto-Helm upper system (or making something similar) to replace the original vane as it is compact and can be remotely mounted ie. on top of the radar arch. I had some friends that had a Belcher auxiliary unit and they couldn't wait to change it for an Aries. But the problem was most likely with the installation rather than the aux rudder itself. The original one on my boat is 30+ years old and is still working satisfactorily, it's just that the vane intrudes into the cockpit more than I would like.

[mickmul]

I have a Hydrovane vane/aux rudder set up. (visible, covered with the vane stowed in the pic below). Very rugged and simple to set up and operate, though I believe, not easy on the pocket these days. Aux rudder is easily detachable for cleaning, and is a great fallback option in case of rudder failure. I met the American who bought out this UK company having been a user of the product. Self Steering - Hydrovane Selfsteer is the website - it's an undemanding, unpaid, no backchat, 24/7 extra pair of hands . . .

[SimonV]

Quote "Hydrovane vane/aux rudder set up. (visible, covered with the vane stowed in the pic below). Very rugged and simple to set up and operate, though I believe, not easy on the pocket these days." end Quote

About $7K .

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Simon,
Where's that picture? Would like to see a Hydrovane.
I have a monitor but have not used it yet. The advantage will be that it is more sensitive than the old RVG rudder system which I used to have. It will also provide more power to steering because it uses the main rudder and provides increasing power as the wind increases.
JohnL

[mickmul]

[Steve Pope]

I am interested in purchasing a second hand Auto-helm upper unit for use on my main rudder which has a trim tab set back from it. It is presently operated by a horizontal wind vane which takes up a fair amount of space. With the Auto-helm I could site it on the radar arch out of the way. Of course if anyone has the dimensions of a similar type unit to the Auto-helm that I could make would be interest as well.

[Kanani]

I have owned an Aries, servo-pendulem wind-vane for 14 years and sailed over 80,000 miles with it. I also sailed with a hydro-vane on one boat delivery.

I can tell you that the servo-pendulem is far stronger than the hydro-vane especially when going down-wind in heavy seas. The servo-pendulem reacts to a following sea differenty then the hydro-vane and I trust it much more than a hydro-vane in those conditions. I never once worried about broaching with the servo-pendulem but I found myself taking the helm away from the hydro-vane in a heavy following sea. It simply did not react fast enough to avoid broaching, IMO.

In all other points of sail, I found little difference in the 2 systems. They both react to apparent wind with all that entails for any self-steering system that relies on apparent wind direction for it's heading.