Self Steering System for Transom Hung Rudder

[Rainbird]

Has anyone had success with a selfsteering system. Our mono is 36' steel weighs about 11 ton. It's a Boden "Daru" design. We're in the NT of Australia. Have tried a tiller pilot on a trimtab but not successful. We'd appreciate any suggestions.

[rebel heart]

Some questions to help maybe:

- are you looking for something mainly for motoring or sailing
- how long are your longest anticipated passages
- what was your tiller pilot not successful

[SteveT]

Our boat is a 10.25 m steel hulled Dix design with a transom hung rudder and tiller steering. We have had good results with a Monitor wind vane but obviously that is under sail only.

[Albro359]

We had a 12 m sloop DIVA, put a FLEMING GLOBAL 501 wind vane on the retrousse stern and sailed thousands of miles all over the Pacific with it...fantastic !

Only problem we had was the pulleys breaking (Ronstan), replaced them with Garhauer and no problem......you do need to change the vanes tho...the standard is good to 15 knots, above that you need to change to the smaller one...we kept about 4 or 5 of the standard one and 3 or 4 of the small one on board....


But absolutely wonderful if you have the boat balanced, not too much headsail...they always wander unlike an autopilot, but I would for a boat of 13m or less, recommend it without hesitation...

They don't need feeding, don't use electricity, and don't complain...well not much !

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Rainbird.

[Vlad70]

After installing Hydrovane Self Steering (last summer) - we sail more than 2000nm just using it (electric also installed and used when motoring)

Work - super!

[boden36]

Hello Rainbird,
We also own a Boden Daru which we built ourselves 25 yrs ago.
If she is set up properly your boat should be very directionally stable and steer herself to windward without rudder input.
I designed and constructed our windvane ( with a lot of help from Belcher's book) which is a horizontal axis vane which drives a paddle hanging through an aft facing stirrup secured to the rudder like a Sayes Rig outfit.
All bearings are sealed stainless ball races.
The vane works well, even downwind.

Regards,

Richard.

[brianb00]

Originally Posted by Rainbird

Has anyone had success with a selfsteering system. Our mono is 36' steel weighs about 11 ton. It's a Boden "Daru" design. We're in the NT of Australia. Have tried a tiller pilot on a trimtab but not successful. We'd appreciate any suggestions.

Hi. Could you describe the trim tab arrangement ?

Brian
S v red sky

[RaymondR]

Hi Rainbird.

If you do a lot of cruising in the tropics you do a fair bit of motoring and light wind sailing and in these conditions I would tend to an autopilot rather than a wind vane. What was the problem with the tiller pilot - trim tab arrangement?

[roverhi]

Interesting, cruised French Polynesia, to and from, with an Aries Vane and never felt the need for an autopilot except the doldrums. Wouldn't waste my money on anything but a cheap autopilot only capable of steering the boat under power in calm conditions.

Trim tabs will work but why reinvent the wheel?? A Monitor or other commercial vane can easily be adapted to hang off the stern of almost any boat. Way cheaper to buy a used vane for 1 1/2 boat units and a coupe pieces of SS tubing and be off. No tuning, tinkering re-designing, throwing it all away and starting over that a from scratch that designing your own vane entails. Probably cheaper too unless you are a machinist.

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by Rainbird

Has anyone had success with a selfsteering system. Our mono is 36' steel weighs about 11 ton. It's a Boden "Daru" design. We're in the NT of Australia. Have tried a tiller pilot on a trimtab but not successful. We'd appreciate any suggestions.

Hi Rainbird, if your still on CF, can you tell me why your auto pilot in trim tab didn't work?

Ted