The 1970s called and want to know if you still have a windvane

[Jammer]

There was once a time when windvane steering was the sine qua non of a cruising sailboat. In those days, there was engine-driven refrigeration and engine-driven watermakers. You might have had a wind generator or an oversize alternator. There were those awful tow generators that everyone wants to forget.


Because back then, every Coulomb was (with apologies to Monty Python) sacred. You needed more of them, because lights were incandescent and solid state radars were only an idea. You were lucky if your HF was solid state. By the 1980s, inverters were around (anyone remember the early Heart Interface ones?),but the automatic 3-stage charger was only on the drawing boards. If you had a charger at all it probably had a wind-up timer on it that would tick down until it shut off. Electronic autopilots were, in those days, a poor choice for passagemaking.


So there were windvanes, and they revolutionized shorthanded sailing.


Times have changed. Everyone can afford solar panels with the only real limitation on quantity being windage concerns. There is, for the first time in the 100+ year history of electrical power, more than one choice of battery chemistry that is practical for storing substantial amounts of power. There is such a thing a suitcase generator, and you can get them at Walmart for $400. Speaking of Walmart, they'll sell you an inverter that is every bit as good as that old Heart Interface, and you'll only need one hand to lift it, instead of two people.


So, how about that windvane? Are you ready to consign it to the bucket of history along with the wringer washer, the pressurized alcohol stove, and the copper dive helmet? Do you keep one for nostalgia, sort of like a sextant or a mechanical clock that strikes the bells of the watch?


After all, the technology has reached a point where even @boat_alexandra has an electronic autopilot, homemade from a wiper motor and various electronic odds and ends.

[Sailmonkey]

We have a windvane. Despite your proclamation that solar is only limited by windage we’re unable to fit enough to be comfortable with running an electric pilot on a long downwind passage.

[newhaul]

Lets see yes I have solar , a wind generator yes I do underway laundry in a bucket with a plunger, I still have and occasionally use my pressure alcohol stove and no auto pilot for my boat its still sheet to tiller steering. Cheap easy and uses no power. Always saw wind vanes as new fangled expensive failure points.

[hellosailor]

You mean, the EMP-resistant kinetically operated self-calibrating automatic atmospheric disturbance indicator?

[Don C L]

Boy I hope you are writing a book Jammer!
In this case it will depend mostly on the size of the boat you are talking about. But it is pretty hard to argue with a device that will do 90% of the sailing for you without complaint or need to be fed with electrons, isn't it?

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Jammer

There was once a time when windvane steering was the sine qua non of a cruising sailboat. In those days, there was engine-driven refrigeration and engine-driven watermakers. You might have had a wind generator or an oversize alternator. There were those awful tow generators that everyone wants to forget.


Because back then, every Coulomb was (with apologies to Monty Python) sacred. You needed more of them, because lights were incandescent and solid state radars were only an idea. You were lucky if your HF was solid state. By the 1980s, inverters were around (anyone remember the early Heart Interface ones?),but the automatic 3-stage charger was only on the drawing boards. If you had a charger at all it probably had a wind-up timer on it that would tick down until it shut off. Electronic autopilots were, in those days, a poor choice for passagemaking.


So there were windvanes, and they revolutionized shorthanded sailing.


Times have changed. Everyone can afford solar panels with the only real limitation on quantity being windage concerns. There is, for the first time in the 100+ year history of electrical power, more than one choice of battery chemistry that is practical for storing substantial amounts of power. There is such a thing a suitcase generator, and you can get them at Walmart for $400. Speaking of Walmart, they'll sell you an inverter that is every bit as good as that old Heart Interface, and you'll only need one hand to lift it, instead of two people.


So, how about that windvane? Are you ready to consign it to the bucket of history along with the wringer washer, the pressurized alcohol stove, and the copper dive helmet? Do you keep one for nostalgia, sort of like a sextant or a mechanical clock that strikes the bells of the watch?


After all, the technology has reached a point where even @boat_alexandra has an electronic autopilot, homemade from a wiper motor and various electronic odds and ends.

So much nostalgia, so many mistakes!

1. I sure wish I still had my AWFUL tow generator. Still one of the best power options for passage making. Works in the dark and downwind, very reliably. No desire to forget mine (homebrew).

2. I still have my Heart Interface inverter. A better modified sine wave than its modern counterparts (runs everything on the boat) and with a very small idle current so I can just leave it on all the time. And it isn't significantly heavier than my more modern one (240 V) that sits next to it and draws over an amp at idle. And it has run reliably since 1985. Doubt if many chinese built ones will have that life span!

3. In 1985 I had a three step alternator controller, and it wasn't exactly newest thing off the shelf. Came from Ample Power. No LEDs, no magic magnetic screwdriver, but reliable and repairable if needed (not potted).

And yes, I had a home built windvane, and wish I had one on this boat. But I agree that autopilots have become much more reliable and far better at steering the boat. We rely on ours a lot! Lots of folks here on CF decry windvanes , but I suspect that those folks have never used one on passage... likely have never made a long passage for that matter!

I also carry a sextant, but doubt if I will ever use it again. Doesn't take up much room...

Times change, new stuff comes along, but the things that used to work still work (possible exception is RDF) and us old guys still use some of them... successfully.

Jim

[Tillsbury]

No idea whether you’re ranting about windvanes or wind generators now. Wind generators no, windvanes I wouldn’t go on a long (transoceanic) passage without one. If it’s a Hydrovane it’s a spare rudder for a start. And budgeting most of your electrons for an autopilot is just too much of a pain, particularly if anything goes wrong electrically speaking.

[alctel]

I got one as well as a really good electronic autopilot because its nice having something that doesn't need any power and is a totally different system to the electronic autopilot in case something breaks (I single hand a lot)

[alctel]

edit: also if someone has a tow generator they want to sell me cheap that'd be great

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by alctel

edit: also if someone has a tow generator they want to sell me cheap that'd be great

make one its easy.

[Stu Jackson]

Gee, Jammer, you're really up to being PC-provocative.

When our autopilot died halfway up the coast from SF to British Columbia, a wind vane would not have helped because our trip was predicated on motoring/harbor hopping.

If our choice had been offshore, you betcha I'd have had one.

Ninety nine percent of questions about gear are directly related to "How You Use Your Boat."

My Heart Freedom 15, 1999, is still working fine with my Link 2000 and Balmar MC-612 on my 100A alternator.


Your boat, your choice.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Boy I hope you are writing a book Jammer!

I have quite a few friends who are better writers than I am. Some of them have written books. Good ones. None of them have become happier, nor richer, as a result of their book-writing activities.

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

I sure wish I still had my AWFUL tow generator. Still one of the best power options for passage making. Works in the dark and downwind, very reliably. No desire to forget mine (homebrew).

I guess we're all entitled to our tastes.

I still have my Heart Interface inverter. A better modified sine wave than its modern counterparts (runs everything on the boat) and with a very small idle current so I can just leave it on all the time. And it isn't significantly heavier than my more modern one (240 V) that sits next to it and draws over an amp at idle. And it has run reliably since 1985. Doubt if many chinese built ones will have that life span!

I had two friends with them back in the 1980s who bought them with alternative energy tax credit money. One died early. I remember having it apart and replacing transistors. It lasted some years after being repaired, as did the other. I believe they used a 60 Hz switching frequency, unlike the modern ones that switch at a much higher frequency to keep the transformer size down. But perhaps I'm mistaken.

Times change, new stuff comes along, but the things that used to work still work (possible exception is RDF) and us old guys still use some of them... successfully.

RDF, LORAN, Kodachrome, and to some extent HF have lost the supporting services that made them useful. As for the sextant, the stars keep moving around, but at least there are still updated nautical almanacs coming out.


Also, I'm having a hell of a time getting the correct prop shaft seal for my 1958 boat motors. Johnson changed bearing sizes in the late 1960s and no one has the old ones.

Originally Posted by Tillsbury

No idea whether you’re ranting about windvanes or wind generators now.

Nobody ever started an interesting discussion by stating obvious uncontroversial facts and asking learned questions

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Jammer

Also, I'm having a hell of a time getting the correct prop shaft seal for my 1958 boat motors. Johnson changed bearing sizes in the late 1960s and no one has the old ones

what engine I have several oddball suppliers here in the puget sound I can check for you.

[Jim Cate]

RDF, LORAN, Kodachrome, and to some extent HF have lost the supporting services that made them useful. As for the sextant, the stars keep moving around, but at least there are still updated nautical almanacs coming out.

RDF was never good enough to bother resurrecting, but I note that LORAN is still used and is being considered for resurrection in the USA. HF comms are in daily use on board our boat, albeit on amateur frequencies. Kodachrome?? Never was a part of my cruising life!

The fascination with all the latest electronic gadgets seems pervasive in the boating (and non-boating for that matter) communities, but they seem to be fleeting, with "new and improved" glitz driving folks to purchase ever more stuff. Once past GPS, AIS, radar and vhf, most seem like toys to me. I don't need everything displayed on one big screen, and all the "features" bragged about in the latest do-everything MFD add little to my enjoyment of sailing and cruising... but as all have noticed, I'm a crotchety old fart who refuses to do Facebook etc.

But... windvanes... now there is a timeless technology!

Jim

[DocBrauer]

I have a windvane and a autopilot. If I had only one I choose windvane. More reliable (less likely to break) and energy independent. When starting across Indian Ocean battery bank was obviously deteriorating. Using windvane and not autopilot I kept refrigerator and electronics going from Malaysia to Maldives.