do we remove the 'Vane' of the Aries before 'heaving to'?

[Scare_Rab]

spent. a couple hours out on the bay, playing with the Aries vane for the 1st time. I could get it to steer both up wind and down so I'm happy.
Couple questions. Easy enough to " unhook the chain from the tiller" and take back direct control.
however, ...
1. does the plywood vane itself need to taken out and put away if the vessel is "hove to".

2. shpuld the vane be taken out and put away BEFORE entering a marina

( manoeuvring seemed odd, and I noticed the vane and rudder tilted over at very odd angle )

3. check out the method the ply vane is held on ( see pic ). I unscrewed the smaller bolt heading * INTO / toward * the ply Vane. Then used a small phillips screwdriver to turn then pin itself. Seemed a bit precarious hanging over the solar panels. Is this the standard means of attaching the ply Vanes?

4. How often do people change these , at sea? ( Boat came with 3 x different sized Vanes ).

[Snowpetrel]

Hi Rab, I never took off the vane on my fleming except when tied up in port. Though I often tied it to the backstay to stop it flopping about. I broke a weld on the flemming vane carrier when becalmed with a big swell causing the vane to bang from one side to the other. Since then I have been more careful about lashing it. Ideally I should have had some bungy to secure the vane.

I tied the vane itself not the carrier on the windvane, to reduce the fatigue on the unit.

At sea I experimented with a bunch of different vanes. The most successful was a reefable oversize one with big lightning holes covered with a nylon sleeve. When the wind got to about 25 knots I removed the sleeve. With the sleeve on it would steer in any wind that would move the boat. Without the sleeve it was good for most stuff.

My best heavy wx one was as tall as the normal ones but tapered from 250mm to 100mm. This one was brilliant from about 15 knots+ and was made from heavier plywood.

Balance is critical with the vanes, too heavy or too high and they don't work, too light or too low and they aren't sensitive enough. Even a coat of paint can throw the balance out. The light air ones must be perfect, slowly coming back upright if deflected. The heavy wx ones can be lighter (or lower) and should come back upright more quickly. The reefable light airs vane changed balance as I removed the sock.

The worst was a twin wall polycarbonate one. In 30 knots it started flapping and disintegrated.

The little stubby storm vane I made was not responsive enough even in 35 knots.

I occasionally switched between the light air and the tapered as the mood struck me, but either worked fine most of the time.

My standard vane was the light air vane.

[roverhi]

IIRC the Aires plywood vane was held on by a thumb screw. If yours has gone missing just have a cross bar welded onto the proper size bolt. We took the vane off at anchor or in a marina, other than that it was usually working. The vane servo rudder has virtually no effect on the boat's handling when detached from the tiller so doesn't matter if the wind vane is in place or not.

[Scare_Rab]

I have these three Vanes. ( see photo )
Should I make more? are they that at risk of breaking at sea?

[hpeer]

I made a couple, using the original as model. It's not a big deal.

The first one I put on broke right away, like in 5 minutes. I was using some cheap lumber yard ply and I think I had a big void just above the supports. The next one, same ply, is still on and working fine.

[roverhi]

Made a vane out of lightweight corrugated plastic. Stuff apparently comes if 4'x8' sheets so had them rip it into 4'x8" strips. Made a tremendous improvement in light air sensitivity. The experimental one I made from a scrap I found dumpster diving had the corrugation running parallel to the horizon and soon bent but showed me how effective the lightweight vane was. The stuff I bought had the corrugations running vertical and steered me all the way to Hawaii from SF. it really had a workout with the waves slewing the stern around banging the vane off the stops as it sensed the rapid change in wind direction. Figured the flexible plastic would self destruct so have multiple back ups. Stuff is pretty tough and am still using the original vertical ribbed vane.

Sailed our Westsail over 10,000 miles without having to replace the vane. The spare that we bought was still in its original packaging after 10 years.