Davits vs Windvane

[ixtlan22]

Getting closer to heading southbound to Mexico and points West coming down from the Seattle area. At issue for us is the pleasant problem of having a nice set of davits, and a new (used) Monitor windvane. They both seem to want to occupy the same space at the same time! When enroute offshore, we plan to put our RIB on the forward deck, and clamp the outboard on the aft rail. The problem with this scenerio is getting the dink and the outboard up and down from on deck as the davits are probably going to have to go. The question I have is does anyone else have this problem and if so how do you handle it? We have whisker poles (actually a whisker and spinnaker poles) and we're twin masted....also have lifting straps etc. Very curious as to how others deal with this issue as the outboard and the dink are fairly heavy and we plan to stop and go ashore a lot.

Ray and Sandy
S/V Pure Joy

[imagine2frolic]

I used the end of the boom as a crane to raise, and lower my outboard. A snapshackle on the boom, and another forward, so I could run the line to a winch on the coaming. After a couple of tries I refined my movement, and it became VERY simple. I managed this why single-handing.........BEST WISHES in sorting it out......i2f

[ronniesimpson]

i did something very similar to what i2f did. even while single-handing, i was able to offload a 10 foot RIB, which was stored on the foredeck while sailing. I would flip the RIB on its side, and attach the main halyard to a cradle type rope that I had tied to the dink at 3 points. (1 forward, 2 aft). Using the winch on the mast, I could easily get the dink into the water. I did something very similar to what i2f said for the outboard, which was a 9.9 four stroke suzuki. (not light.) just as he said, even while solo, i could offload the dink and motor and get it back on when need be. I had an wind vane">Aries wind vane on the back of my boat, and this set-up seemed to work out pretty well.

[henkmeuzelaar]

The Monitor windvane is made/sold by Scanmar Marine, who also make the so-called Autohelm (no connection with Autohelm electronic navigation instruments) windvane that uses a large, stern-mounted accessory rudder with a trimtab controlled by cables connected to a large windvane which can be mounted anywhere else on the stern, e.g. above the davits. This is the set-up we have had on Rivendel II (currently in Brisbane) over the past 15 years or so (see image below). It did work for us like a charm and has given us a large accessory rudder that can be used as an emergency rudder as a substantial bonus.



Finally, under windless conditions or if steering by compass course rather then by apparent wind angle is desired, the trimtab can be directly coupled to the smallest (i.e. lowest weight, size, powerdraw and cost) tillerpilot of any of the commercially available brand series (we use a small Raytheon).

So, how does this all apply to you?? Perhaps not at all, unless you somehow manage to swap the Monitor for an Autohelm......

Fair winds,

Henk "Flying Dutchman" Meuzelaar

[Cherp]

Hi. A couple of years ago, I sailed across the Tasman Sea in fairly boisterous conditions on a 36 ft yacht. We were two-up and had a Fleming windvane. The journey took eleven days. The main thing I remember from that crossing is the value of windvane steering. In all sorts of conditions, it worked on, leaving us free to do other things. The windvane is also independent of the boat's other (electrical) systems, which is a bonus. I would go for the Monitor and work out a way to deal with the dinghy. You will come to love the Monitor. Regards.

[oldsalt_1942]

Windvane wins in my book every time.

[James S]

Hemkneuzelaar
Nice looking Doger did you build it.

[henkmeuzelaar]

Thanks for the kind compliment, James!

Yes, we had it built 3-4 seasons ago in Port Vila, Vanuatu, by a talented French boat designer/builder, Laurent Champroux, who has since sold his boatyard and moved on to New Zealand. Before he left, we had Laurent extend the roof section another couple of feet further aft, effectively incoroporating the separate bimini seen in the picture above.
With the new, extended roof (shown below) the helmsperson has more protection and we also catch more rainwater. One good tropical shower now often puts 10-20 gallons into our tanks.

http://terrawatch.net/Rivendelimages...portmarina.jpg

The new picture shows Rivendel in her current berth in Newport, Australia, close to Brisbane. We just sailed her there from Vanuatu a little over a month ago, passing within 20-30 miles from the location where the NZ yacht Sambaluka was to strike -- and be lost -- on an uncharted reef just a few days after we passed through. Fortunately, our 8-day passage was no more eventful than 2 days of rough weather and the near-loss of our accessory windvane rudder, which can still be seen missing from the transom in the picture above, taken shortly after we arrived (note the RIB plus small OB still secured hi&dri under the solar panels in offshore passage mode). The accessory rudder, broken off along a weld with crevice corrosion, is being repaired and should soon be operational again.

Rivendel II, our cherished home-away-from-home for 17 years and 50,000+ NM, is now waiting to be sold as we have passed the baton for Project MARC , our medical assistance project in Vanuatu since 2001, on to a new generation of volunteers.

Sorry for providing much more information than you asked for, but I though that some of it might perhaps interest others on this board.

Henk "Flying Dutchman" Meuzelaar

[James S]

Henk
The extension looks even better...I've pretty much convinced myself to go with a rigid bimini (that doesn’t look rigid) it won’t be an extension of my dodger (its to low) but about 30cm higher.
The boat doesn’t go with the baton?
I had a look at the listing...I don’t think she'll be difficult to sell.....best of luck.

[blahman]

Ray and Sandy,

If you want a windvane with your davits, Cape Horn Windvanes can make a system with the windvane remote from the servo pendulum:



I generally think the Cape Horn system is less finicky than the Monitors. I've recently sold my Monitor to be replaced with a Cape Horn.

Either way, if your Monitor is installed, you can probably work around it with your dingy. If not, sell it for $2500 and buy a Cape Horn set up for remote work. You won't regret it!

Cheers,
Aaron N.

[blahman]

Here, I'll pull a Gord:

Cape Horn
MARINE PRODUCTS
316 Girouard st., Oka QC Canada J0N 1E0
1-800 CAP HORN; 450 479 6314; fax 450 479 1895
mail@capehorn.com http://www.capehorn.com

[henkmeuzelaar]

James,

If your planned bimini and dodger are nearly integrated an important design issue is to provide for enough fresh air ventilation, particularly in the tropics, Our fully integrated dodger/bimini ended up having 3 top-opening hatches, a large one right in front of the helmsperson (also helps with visual contact with sails plus masttop and with manual access to the boom end) as well as two small ones at each of the forward roof corners.

We found the market for used boats in Australia to be still prettty good. However, an unexpected problem was that the Australian dollar has lost so much ground against the US dollar during the past few months. This makes selling any US goods in Australia a bit of an uphill battle right now.
Nonetheless, there appear to be one or two potential buyers. Even before we left Port Vila we had two or three people wanting to buy Rivendel. However, the credit crunch there made it difficult for them to round up money fast. Thus, we decided to sail for Australia before it got too late in the season.

Fair winds,

Henk

[henkmeuzelaar]

Sorry, James

I missed your question concerning the "baton".
Not quite sure though what you were referring to.
Please explain.

Henk

[James S]

Yeh...it was a poorly exicuted joke...."as we have passed the baton for Project MARC , our medical assistance project in Vanuatu since 2001, on to a new generation of volunteers."
Thanks for the ventalation advice...I planed on a sliding hatch in the center...also should let me se my main.

[ixtlan22]

Looks like we're going to have to work on this a bit and come up with the best set of options. Thanks again for the replies...great pictures...lots of help.

Ray and Sandy
S/V Pure Joy
Wandering around Puget Sound