Is a windvane possible with an arch and davits

[exkma367]

S/V Soggy Paws - CSY 44 - Deck Equipment

I am squeezing a Monitor wind vane, solar arch and davits on the back of my Tartan 34c. I took a look at Soggy Paws configuration above in laying mine out. Obviously during a passage the dink gets put on deck, and while using davits the vane comes off. I quizzed the Monitor guys at the boat show about disturbed air from the arch and they were sure it would not be an issue.

[NirvanaBob]

I installed a Hydrovane on my 45', 31,000lb monohull which has radar arch, dinghy davits, Bimini canvas, two overhead solar panels. Hydrovane offers two sizes of "paddles" (one taller and narrower, the other shorter/wider). Our installation is offset from vessel centerline by six or so inches (we have a traditional back stay). The Hydrovane works very well on our boat. Several things to think about re your installation: 1) paddle selection; 2)davit interference as the paddle is rotated to align with apparent wind- you can "tilt" the paddle in an aft direction to alleviate some interference issues but it is a concern; 3) lateral offset, which has NOT adversely affected steering of our vessel, but beneficially DOES facilitate use of the Hydrovane as an emergency hand steered rudder-think about tiller extension considerations if you have a conventional centerline back stay that terminates close to the stern/Hydrovane installation. PS-Hydrovane will help you with these engineering questions-we sent photos of our vessel which led to their installation recommendations and installation details. BTW as a commenter to your question we have been sailing extensively in Mexican and Central American Pacific Ocean waters and based on our experience would make the same steering vane decision were we to do it over. Cheers, NirvanaBob

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Re extending the vane mount too high: The higher the vane, the more the apparent wind it is sensing will vary with the rolling of the boat. This can lead to a lot of yawing when sailing deep down wind angles on some boat designs.

Jim

A possible solution to this is to come out sideways with the vane instead. I tried this with a swing out arm and found a double advantage of picking up very clear airflow before it reaches the boat. Tricky because you need a mount on both sides of the boat and a low friction method of translating the vane movement to the rudder but I think it is well worth trying to solve.


Sent from my iPhone so apologies for weird autocorrect typos.

[svmariane]

This arrangement brought us from Mexico to New Zealand & beyond.

The arch does tend to look really large when viewed from up close, so I added the third photo for perspective.

Dinghy davits are part of arch, projecting aft just under the solar panels.
{When the arch was installed, we added hard-rails leading forward to mid-ship area.}

Look close at the second photo - below the (somewhat tattered) Austrian flag you'll see the Monitor wind blade in use; dinghy hoist block/tackle attached at ends of davits but tied aside.

Monitor wind vane blade is removed at anchor; rudder removed when using dinghy davits.

Boarding plank across aft causes no probs with windvane. Yes, lots of "stuff & gear" gets lashed to the quarter rails - at port or underway.

VHF ant mounted on pushpit, stbd, is for backup radio. Solar panels/arch cause reduced range. {Really need to find a better location, but, you know. <smile> }

[hpeer]

Someone has a Flemming for sale, pretty inexpensive.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ne-222561.html

[DefinitelyMe]

Originally Posted by hpeer

Someone has a Flemming for sale, pretty inexpensive.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ne-222561.html

I had a Fleming for all of 1/2 a passage from Bermuda to St. Maarten. Then the weld holding the auxiliary rudder to the shaft failed and the rudder dropped off into oblivion, leaving me in the North Atlantic, several hundred miles from landfall, with no self-steering, by myself, in December. I was not pleased with anything about the quality of the Fleming vane. The early model for sale here was notoriously pants, with a spindly little shaft, very prone to failure.

It was replaced with a Hydrovane and that got us around the entire globe with zero problems.

[akopac]

[hpeer]

Having fitted a RM tiller pilot to my Aries I realized just how small the forces are. I suspect that with a little engineering you could add a remote vane to an Aries with a cable connection, push pull arrangement.