Is wind vane steering necessary....

A1Sailor

...
Joined
4 Jul 2004
Messages
32,006
Location
Banned from Rockall
Visit site
Definitely not true. Only unavailable from Amazon, whom I have never dealt with.

It is available from me by mail order. Has been since the early 90s, without interuption.
Or from The Nautical Mind bookstore in Toronto.
Currently titled " Origami Metal Boat Building"

dinarbart seem to be selling it on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Origami-Meta...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509837491&sr=1-1
...ranked an impressive 10,936,306th in their best sellers list.
Does it have pictures of your wind vane?
 

john_morris_uk

Well-known member
Joined
3 Jul 2002
Messages
27,210
Location
At sea somewhere.
yachtserendipity.wordpress.com
View attachment 67094
Previous ports on this voyage ( one of many)clearly listed, which US customs tends to check diligently , with severe consequences for any deception.

Methinks he doth protest too much.

One swallow doesn’t make a summer.

I’ve no doubt you have some experience of ocean sailing. If I’m brutally honest, its the multiple Pacific crossings I’m not so convinced about.

You also quote a lot of experience to support your views from books which I read many years ago.

Try being a little more circumspect in your advice. Steel construction has some advantages but it also has significant disadvantages and most sensible people know that. Even those of us who have sailed steel built boats know about their potential problems.

May I humbly suggest you might be taken more seriously if you weren’t quite so fixated and single minded?
 
Last edited:

Prasutigus

New member
Joined
14 Aug 2017
Messages
555
Visit site
Greetings..
ok let's go, this is a 1980's Nick Franklin Aries on a custom bracket designed by yours truly, and TIG welded out of thick wall 316 tube by Mr Stainless at Levington. Photo taken 5 minutes ago in Norway.
I was lucky enough to find this low-mileage Aries in Suffolk through one of you Jesters, and it really does what it says on the tin.

(Now "I've shown you mine", let's have a butchers at yours!
 
Last edited:

A1Sailor

...
Joined
4 Jul 2004
Messages
32,006
Location
Banned from Rockall
Visit site
Greetings..
ok let's go, this is a 1980's Nick Franklin Aries on a custom bracket designed by yours truly, and TIG welded out of thick wall 316 tube by Mr Stainless at Levington. Photo taken 5 minutes ago in Norway.
I was lucky enough to find this low-mileage Aries in Suffolk through one of you Jesters, and it really does what it says on the tin.

(Now "I've shown you mine", let's have a butchers at yours!
attachment.php
That looks like JerryTug's boat. I didn't know he'd sold her.;)
 
Last edited:

Prasutigus

New member
Joined
14 Aug 2017
Messages
555
Visit site
Tusen Takk Prasutigus!

I assume all went well with your voyage from Suffolk to Norway?!

I had a Navik on my Contessa 26 but it was almost lost...

View attachment 67112

A tang holding one of the support stays from the transom sheared off (see the lashing) and the extra strain tore through one of the main mounting tubes (opposite side of rudder). I had to hand steer or lash the tiller for five days.

On my Corribee I changed to the Windpilot...

I now own a Hero 101 in Norway which I intend to sail back to the UK next year, no windvane yet but from my experience I would most likely choose a Windpilot again.
Such a big contrast between those two installations, the Wind Pilot Light looks like a lovely clean design, with nothing to get snagged. Whereas the first pic of the Navik doesn't look quite so neat..
As to Norway, yes I've really fallen in love with the place, although the boat got damaged a bit and I'm at a yard organising some repairs. The surrounding hills and forests are totally cosmic, have to pinching myself that I'm not in Narnia or somewhere..
fair winds, Prasutigus
 

Prasutigus

New member
Joined
14 Aug 2017
Messages
555
Visit site
Transom hung rudders make windvane installations a little more complicated, which makes them more suited to a trim tab design.

Good luck with your repairs, just coming in to Fredrikstad on the bus now... I have my own list of things to do!
A list? luxury..I've got a list of my lists ;)
 
Joined
25 Oct 2010
Messages
1,361
Visit site
Joined
25 Oct 2010
Messages
1,361
Visit site
Such a big contrast between those two installations, the Wind Pilot Light looks like a lovely clean design, with nothing to get snagged. Whereas the first pic of the Navik doesn't look quite so neat..
As to Norway, yes I've really fallen in love with the place, although the boat got damaged a bit and I'm at a yard organising some repairs. The surrounding hills and forests are totally cosmic, have to pinching myself that I'm not in Narnia or somewhere..
fair winds, Prasutigus

Nothing to get snagged on a trim tab on the trailing edge of an outboard rudder. That is part of what makes them so tough and reliable.
 
Joined
25 Oct 2010
Messages
1,361
Visit site
One swallow doesn’t make a summer.

I’ve no doubt you have some experience of ocean sailing. If I’m brutally honest, its the multiple Pacific crossings I’m not so convinced about.

Try being a little more circumspect in your advice. Steel construction has some advantages but it also has significant disadvantages and most sensible people know that. Even those of us who have sailed steel built boats know about their potential problems.

May I humbly suggest you might be taken more seriously if you weren’t quite so fixated and single minded?

Fixated and single mined as the implied claim that ones only option is a stock plastic boat and stock commercially produced gear, or that one should buy everything, rather than make your own gear, or that only the most expensive and complicated ways of doing things will work, and should be accepted without question, or that one should only do exactly what everyone else does, without question, rather than try find better ways, or blindly accept the theory that commercially, mass produced gear is automatically better than hand made, custom made , by oneself, or that which has enabled someone to semi retire in ones mid 20's is all wrong, and the way which has one working ones entire life, to get to the same point is the "right" way of doing things, or that, that which has worked well for over 40 years is not as good as that which has a track record of many failures; all of which my critics keep claiming?

Seems my critics are exponentially more fixated and single minded ( or sheeple mindless) than I have been . Otherwise, I would have had the same results as them , spending a huge part of my life in debt,and working, instead of being able to semi retire ,and cruise, mostly full time, since my mid 20's.
 
Last edited:
Joined
25 Oct 2010
Messages
1,361
Visit site
But he assures us he's sailed across the Pacific many times and my understanding is that he's implying he's one of the most experienced sailors on the planet?

I have NEVER claimed to be "the most experienced cruiser on the planet." Can you show us the quote where I said that.?
When you have to put words in someones mouth to give you something to argue against, you concede the argument.
I have posted more than enough photos to prove my many Pacific crossings, over many decades..
 

john_morris_uk

Well-known member
Joined
3 Jul 2002
Messages
27,210
Location
At sea somewhere.
yachtserendipity.wordpress.com
I have NEVER claimed to be "the most experienced cruiser on the planet." Can you show us the quote where I said that.?
When you have to put words in someones mouth to give you something to argue against, you concede the argument.
I have posted more than enough photos to prove my many Pacific crossings, over many decades..

I’ll leave others to judge whether your claims to have sailed the Pacific many times are credible. One of my jobs in assessing candidates for their skippers tickets (offshore or ocean) is to assess whether their claimed experience is credible.

People who rush to ‘prove’ their claims with photographs of one record aren’t always very convincing. I’m sure you’ve made one crossing. You’ve IMPLIED you’re an extremely experienced sailor, but I’ll allow others to judge their veracity.
 

john_morris_uk

Well-known member
Joined
3 Jul 2002
Messages
27,210
Location
At sea somewhere.
yachtserendipity.wordpress.com
Fixated and single mined as the implied claim that ones only option is a stock plastic boat and stock commercially produced gear, or that one should buy everything, rather than make your own gear, or that only the most expensive and complicated ways of doing things will work, and should be accepted without question, or that one should only do exactly what everyone else does, without question, rather than try find better ways, or blindly accept the theory that commercially, mass produced gear is automatically better than hand made, custom made , by oneself, or that which has enabled someone to semi retire in ones mid 20's is all wrong, and the way which has one working ones entire life, to get to the same point is the "right" way of doing things, or that, that which has worked well for over 40 years is not as good as that which has a track record of many failures; all of which my critics keep claiming?

Seems my critics are exponentially more fixated and single minded ( or sheeple mindless) than I have been . Otherwise, I would have had the same results as them , spending a huge part of my life in debt,and working, instead of being able to semi retire ,and cruise, mostly full time, since my mid 20's.

Brent, you need to take a deep breath and stop ranting.

Show me where I’m fixated on commercial gear and decrying home made as worse by definition. As it happens I’m extremely partial to a bit of DIY. Lots of things on my boat I designed and made or had welded up and then fitted. None of them are available commercially.

The difference is that I can see (and have experienced) failings in steel boats. May I humbly suggest you stop shouting down people who point out the problems and instead of pooh poohing the problems in a dismissive way, you face up to them like most of us seafarers have to do.

Some realistic admissions about maintenance for a steel boat might be a start. Ones that those of us who have sailed steel boats can identify with....
 
Top