Aries Wind Vane Shaft too Long

[killyourguitar]

The link to the photos you posted is dead now. Would you still have those old photos to share showing how you modified the mount? Also, I'm wondering how far above the waterline did the bottom of the shear tube need to be? Or how deep in the water does the rudder need to be? I believe I have a standard Aries vane going on a Cape Dory 27. The distance between cl upper mounts to bottom of assy as seen in photo is ~26" and my freeboard is exactly 24" so the bottom of the shear tube will be dragging at least 2-3" under water. Not sure how to determine the difference between models. Thank you!

[sully75]

Originally Posted by killyourguitar

The link to the photos you posted is dead now. Would you still have those old photos to share showing how you modified the mount? Also, I'm wondering how far above the waterline did the bottom of the shear tube need to be? Or how deep in the water does the rudder need to be? I believe I have a standard Aries vane going on a Cape Dory 27. The distance between cl upper mounts to bottom of assy as seen in photo is ~26" and my freeboard is exactly 24" so the bottom of the shear tube will be dragging at least 2-3" under water. Not sure how to determine the difference between models. Thank you!

this was a long long time ago and that boat is long gone.


I found these pictures. I don't remember a whole lot. I think the mounting struts are supposed to come off the aft deck but then it was way too low. I had a welder miter them for me. I think I ended up cutting off a large piece of the rudder shaft thing so that the top of the rudder was just a few inches below the waterline. Otherwise it was crazy deep as the Triton had pretty low freeboard.

It ended up working quite well considering. It would even work in light air with the motor running and no sails.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/x7H2iK9BTEb65c1FA

[killyourguitar]

Originally Posted by sully75

this was a long long time ago and that boat is long gone.


I found these pictures. I don't remember a whole lot. I think the mounting struts are supposed to come off the aft deck but then it was way too low. I had a welder miter them for me. I think I ended up cutting off a large piece of the rudder shaft thing so that the top of the rudder was just a few inches below the waterline. Otherwise it was crazy deep as the Triton had pretty low freeboard.

It ended up working quite well considering. It would even work in light air with the motor running and no sails.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/x7H2iK9BTEb65c1FA

Wow that's a super fast reply and with awesome pictures! Thank you very much. I was curious that if I change anything that it would affect the operation of the unit so this answered some questions I didn't know I had. I have four attachment points, two on the top like the ones you have and then two on the bottom which was just a few inches below the top ones but struts that go down to the bottom of the transom. I haven't fitted the unit to my transom yet but I'm about to just start drilling giant holes, pouring epoxy down there and running the biggest fattest screws I can. Someone told me this needs to be the strongest part of the boat. Not sure about that but I can imagine the units going to take some serious stress.

[sully75]

Originally Posted by killyourguitar

Wow that's a super fast reply and with awesome pictures! Thank you very much. I was curious that if I change anything that it would affect the operation of the unit so this answered some questions I didn't know I had. I have four attachment points, two on the top like the ones you have and then two on the bottom which was just a few inches below the top ones but struts that go down to the bottom of the transom. I haven't fitted the unit to my transom yet but I'm about to just start drilling giant holes, pouring epoxy down there and running the biggest fattest screws I can. Someone told me this needs to be the strongest part of the boat. Not sure about that but I can imagine the units going to take some serious stress.

I don't know that it has to be so insanely strong (it should be strong).

I have no idea what I did back then but I'm kinda expecting I backed up the fittings with 1/2" G10 backing plates (I used a fair amount of that stuff and it's rock solid, I got it from McMaster).

The Triton had extremely low freeboard if I remember correctly. Much less even than later Alberg designs. So you might not need to go as radical as I did.

I would firmly suggest mocking it up as much as possible. It is super easy to drill holes but really hard to fill them.



It maybe sounds like you haven't done a ton of bedding of fittings and backing plates and things. I don't know what the current references are for that but I'd suggest doing a lot of research on best techniques for that before you start drilling holes.