Hasler windvane - DIY windvane

[Paul Mazza]

Had a Hasler on my old Columbia 33 that I did a Calif. to Hawaii round trip on in the 70's. It came without a vane, and I built one to the original design, I used light marine ply, some spruce for the arm, and a zinc disc. for a counter weight. I put the lightest fiberglass cloth I could find on the ply. to protect it. Used polyester then, would use epoxy now. It was fool proof, held up in very tough conditions (40-50 kts) on the return passage. It was a great self steering unit. I'd stick with the original style vane, and not worry about light or heavy weather mods.

[ALAIN97133]

Originally Posted by Orchidius

Hi there, So I managed to score myself a Hasler widnvane self-steering unit. It's in great shape, and after some TLC and grease looks/works good as new. I haven't mounted it on the boat yet, so actual tests still have to be done, but I'm having some reservations about the windvane itself... Clearly mine is a DIY modification that took place probably due to a broken windvane or something. You can clearly see it's a lot smaller, and doesn't have a counterweight. I'm sure it'll affect the performance of the whole unit, and I'm assuming in a bad way... What do you guys think? Would you make a new vane for it? Out of what? How big?

Here's a poll on the most popular self steering vanes and ... guess what... ALL have horizontal or near horizontal aerial rotation axis ! Sure, yours will work when everything else is perfect & apparent wind is strong enough BUT the real test is going downwind when apparent wind is the weakest & offshore waves, overtaking you, push your sailboat stern one way & the other... I'm talking about a month passage between Panama & the Marquesas, or between the Canary islands & Barbados for exemple, not daysailing from Cape Charles to Norfolk... Good luck !

Poll - Best Windvane Self-steering system ?

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by Paul Mazza

Had a Hasler on my old Columbia 33 that I did a Calif. to Hawaii round trip on in the 70's. It came without a vane, and I built one to the original design, I used light marine ply, some spruce for the arm, and a zinc disc. for a counter weight. I put the lightest fiberglass cloth I could find on the ply. to protect it. Used polyester then, would use epoxy now. It was fool proof, held up in very tough conditions (40-50 kts) on the return passage. It was a great self steering unit. I'd stick with the original style vane, and not worry about light or heavy weather mods.

Thanks Paul, good to hear how they work in practice. Though the horizontal vane is more efficient, I've used vertical vane to trim tab systems that worked pretty well. Certainly one advantage of the vertical is its self feathering ability when disengaged.


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[kiwish2003]

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