Sandy
Well-known member
Reading round subject I don't think it was the windvanes.Ouch. Maybe they should have all been made to build their own wind vanes.
Reading round subject I don't think it was the windvanes.Ouch. Maybe they should have all been made to build their own wind vanes.
Philippe Péché - Beaufort, I think?This is my punt at an answer. Anyone else know better?
Abhilash Tomy - Windpilot - Atkins ketch
Antoine Cousot - Windpilot - Biscay 36 (reported having problems with his Windpilot - stopped in Canaries to fix)
Are Wiig - Monitor - OE 32 class
Gregor McGuckin - Hydrovane - Biscay 36
Igor Zaretskiy - Windpilot? - Endurance 35
Istvan Kopar - Windpilot - Tradewind 35 (reported problems with his Windpilot)
Jean-Luc van den Heede - Hydrovane - Rustler 36
Kevin Farebrother - Hydrovane - Tradewind 35 (retired)
Loïc Lepage - Hydrovane - Nicholson 32 Mk X
Mark Sinclair - Aries - Lello 34
Mark Slats - ??? - Rustler 36
Philippe Péché - Monitor - Rustler 36
Susie Goodall - Monitor - Rustler 36
Tapio Lehtinen - Windpilot ??? - S&S Gaia 36
Uku Randmaa - Monitor - Rustler 36
Philippe Péché - Beaufort, I think?
Thanks.
Amended List:
Abhilash Tomy - Windpilot - Atkins ketch
Antoine Cousot - Windpilot - Biscay 36 (reported having problems with his Windpilot - stopped in Canaries to fix)
Are Wiig - Monitor - OE 32 class
Gregor McGuckin - Hydrovane - Biscay 36
Igor Zaretskiy - Windpilot? - Endurance 35
Istvan Kopar - Windpilot - Tradewind 35 (reported problems with his Windpilot)
Jean-Luc van den Heede - Hydrovane - Rustler 36
Kevin Farebrother - Hydrovane - Tradewind 35 (retired)
Loïc Lepage - Hydrovane - Nicholson 32 Mk X
Mark Sinclair - Aries - Lello 34
Mark Slats - ??? - Rustler 36
Philippe Péché - Neptune - Rustler 36
Susie Goodall - Monitor - Rustler 36
Tapio Lehtinen - Windpilot ??? - S&S Gaia 36
Uku Randmaa - Monitor - Rustler 36
Neptune? Beaufort is a French system. Not sure if there is a Neptune model?
Thanks.
Amended List:
Abhilash Tomy - Windpilot - Atkins ketch
Antoine Cousot - Windpilot - Biscay 36 (reported having problems with his Windpilot - stopped in Canaries to fix)
Are Wiig - Monitor - OE 32 class
Gregor McGuckin - Hydrovane - Biscay 36
Igor Zaretskiy - Windpilot? - Endurance 35
Istvan Kopar - Windpilot - Tradewind 35 (reported problems with his Windpilot)
Jean-Luc van den Heede - Hydrovane - Rustler 36
Kevin Farebrother - Hydrovane - Tradewind 35 (retired)
Loïc Lepage - Hydrovane - Nicholson 32 Mk X
Mark Sinclair - Aries - Lello 34
Mark Slats - ??? - Rustler 36
Philippe Péché - Beaufort - Rustler 36
Susie Goodall - Monitor - Rustler 36
Tapio Lehtinen - Windpilot ??? - S&S Gaia 36
Uku Randmaa - Monitor - Rustler 36
Mark Slats looks like he's got a new Aries on the back of his Rustler 36 - Plank
Don was speaking to Susie earlier today and said they had sold the Tradewind 35.
Allan
That was quick. I got some nice pictures of it on the dock yesterday. Will see if it's still there when I get back from a quick UK trip on Friday.
Thanks.
Amended List:
Abhilash Tomy - Windpilot - Atkins ketch
Antoine Cousot - Windpilot - Biscay 36 (reported having problems with his Windpilot - stopped in Canaries to fix)
Are Wiig - Monitor - OE 32 class
Gregor McGuckin - Hydrovane - Biscay 36
Igor Zaretskiy - Windpilot? - Endurance 35
Istvan Kopar - Windpilot - Tradewind 35 (reported problems with his Windpilot)
Jean-Luc van den Heede - Hydrovane - Rustler 36
Kevin Farebrother - Hydrovane - Tradewind 35 (retired)
Loïc Lepage - Hydrovane - Nicholson 32 Mk X
Mark Sinclair - Aries - Lello 34
Mark Slats - ??? - Rustler 36
Philippe Péché - Beaufort - Rustler 36
Susie Goodall - Monitor - Rustler 36
Tapio Lehtinen - Windpilot ??? - S&S Gaia 36
Uku Randmaa - Monitor - Rustler 36
Uku Randmaa has 2 Self steering gears on his Rustler 36. The centrally mounted Monitor . . . and now (she) also has a Hydrovane mounted off centre on the port hand side of the transom. Plank
The elderly German maker, Peter Foerthmann, of some of the Windpilot windvane steering gears being used in the GoGoR, around which some controversy has arisen, is bemused. His Windpilot gear is in use worldwide. There are hundreds of satisfied users. It's rugged and has been very dependable. So how come the frustration and abuse flying about?
There's a suggestion that several users have not troubled to 'tweak' their kit, while just about everyone knows that windvane gear needs to be set up and tweaked for one's own boat and ways. Others have apparently changed the factory-made settings of lever-arms, counterweight positions and so on, changing the mechanics of the kit without a sufficient understanding what they were doing.
And there's another problem.
On several of the rugged but elderly Tradewinds, apparently, the steering linkage is solid, reliable but heavy pushrods. That's fine with solid wind, when the paddle can provide powerful 'push-pull'. Not so in the very light airs they've been experiencing. And at least one is acting, I hear, on a too-tiny steering drum/lever - a modification - where the range of movement available, the 'rudder authority', is tiny compared with what is needed. In light airs, the result is ineffectual course-keeping.
Some entrants are just getting on with it. Others are tearing their hair out and 'throwing their toys out of the pram', it seems..... There's been huge pressures on these individuals, for a long time now. Much of that is self-inflicted, much of it is sponsor-obligation. None of it is healthy. One begins to understand better what Crowhurst suffered - and Moitessier rejected....
It may be remembered that many pioneering singlehanders had frustrations with their boats and their gear. Chichester had a 'hate' relationship with one of his 'Gypsy Moths', and with balancing his 'best speed' sailplan against the needs of his early windvane gear.
Right now, sailing in waters that are comparatively benign, one might have hoped the contestants would be getting in tune with their steeds and building 'personal harmony' ahead of the expected stress and challenges of the South Atlantic and beyond.