Monitor wind vane service

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oldvarnish

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Any Monitor owners? I read somewhere that there's a bloke (Hamble?) who services them. Anyone know who it is?

thanks
 
Hi Paul, I had ours from E'le May, our Biscay 36, serviced by Robin Sims who is based a couple of miles inland from Swanwick. You'll find contact details at http://www.simsmarine.co.uk/whoweare.htm He did a good job - all the bearings replaced, a good overhaul and polish up etc. at a fair price. I can't remember how much it was I'm afraid, but I think something over £200.

Ian
 
Just out of interest, because I would like to change my heavy old lift up Aeries for the lighter Monitor
Why have you both felt the need for a service. Have they been laid up for years or used a lot or damaged or have they just not worn well in use?
My Aeries has never needed service & is years old being a Franklin one & gets a lot of use
 
Daydream believer said:
Why have you both felt the need for a service. Have they been laid up for years or used a lot or damaged or have they just not worn well in use?
Click to expand...

After 20 years of use, I was having a problem with one of the bearings and so decided to go for a complete overhaul whist it was apart. The Monitor never failed, never disappointed and never failed to cope providing there was enough breeze. In a flat sea, it would happily steer with only 5 or 6 knots of apparent wind. It was never damaged and I had no complaints with the way it wore.

Having had Navik, Aries and Monitor on my last 3 boats, the Monitor was the best. I now need to get to grips with the Hydrovane on my 'new' (to me) boat. I hope it's as good!
 
Daydream believer said:
Why have you both felt the need for a service. Have they been laid up for years or used a lot or damaged or have they just not worn well in use?
Click to expand...

I've got no reason to believe there's a thing wrong with mine, but in the last five years it has taken me 25K miles and it seems a kind thing to have its bearings replaced or at least looked at.
Having said that, it still works like a dream.
 
Goldie said:
Having had Navik, Aries and Monitor on my last 3 boats, the Monitor was the best. I now need to get to grips with the Hydrovane on my 'new' (to me) boat. I hope it's as good!
Click to expand...

It won't be. The Hydrovane isn't very good. You've been spoiled with the much more powerful pendulum servo gears. I've been shipmates with Wind Pilot, Monitor x 2, and Hydrovane.
 
Daydream believer said:
Just out of interest, because I would like to change my heavy old lift up Aeries for the lighter Monitor
Why have you both felt the need for a service. Have they been laid up for years or used a lot or damaged or have they just not worn well in use?
My Aeries has never needed service & is years old being a Franklin one & gets a lot of use
Click to expand...
Isn't the Monitor Heavier? I have used both but in all honesty never tried to lift one off or on the stern. The Aries has significant amount of aluminium while the Monitor is all stainless steel.
If you want lightness combined with robustness I think the Windpilot is the answer myself. I have lifted a few of those onto and off teh transom.
 
If I remember correctly, my Monitor weighs 55lb excluding the mounting tubes and the paddle. I had a quick look on the manufacturer's website but I can't find anything to confirm that.

I wouldn't like to have to remove and refit it at sea except in a dead calm.
 
I discussed bearing replacement with the most helpful people at Scanmar (its distributors) at the boat show one year, and they encouraged me to tackle it myself.

So, when some unknown idiot rammed our monitor in the marina (moral always take the paddle off when not at sea), I took it off, stripped it down, had the buckled parts repaired (stainless steel is so much easier than cast aluminium) and reassembled it myself. The bearings are teflon rollers (or something similar) and dead easy to assemble. At the same time I had a couple of spare "sacrificial" tubes (from the paddle to the gears) made.

A year or so later, we were knocked down by a microburst mid-atlantic (a weather phenomenon we'd never heard about) and the scarificial tube snapped. But because I knew the Monitor so well and had those spares to hand it was very easy to replace and fix (though somewhat challenging while leaning over the back of the boat - I was most scared of dropping my spanner).

So I would advise every Monitor owner to strip and reassemble their kit because the "whole system" isn't "the boat" it is "the boat plus its owner".

I have since replaced all the stainless steel bolts on the Monitor because after 20 years the were showing signs of rust. Many of them sheared (perhaps the nuts "galled"?) when I tried to take them off. So I would recommend Monitor owners to carry a full spare set of nuts and bolts.

PS I met one monitor owner who had painted his paddle matt black because (he said) his old one had been attacked by a fourteen foot hammer head shark. Scanmar say they have heard of this happening, too.
 
Might be worth painting the paddle dayglo orange in the hope that other boat skippers will see it and avoid hitting it! I had mine clattered in the marina but he who did it bought me a new safety tube (which was the only damage sustained).

Incidentally, the safety tube is, as you'd expect, thin-walled. Not that easily obtainable but I found a source and made a new safety tube, longer than the original at much less cost than buying one from the USA.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Good. Here is a link to the very clear manual http://www.selfsteer.com/pdfs/MonitorManual.pdf . The safety tube (see section 6.6) is what what I called the sacrificial tube.

I see my teflon roller bearings are actually Delrin. And I remember the spare bearings come with a short length of wood dowel to help you (all covered at 6.4.4).

When we were knocked down, lightning also destroyed both our electronic autopilots. At such a time you really appreciate a purely mechanical self steering device.

Anyone practical will appreciate the tangibility of overhauling a Monitor themselves. Appropriate technology, for sure.

Scanmar used to run an ad that said "Monitor Wind Vane, mean time between failure: two circumnavigations. Electronic autopilot, failure: eight times per circumnavigation." I don't suppose they are allowed to say it anymore. But my experience would support that.
 
Glayva said:
Isn't the Monitor Heavier? I have used both but in all honesty never tried to lift one off or on the stern. The Aries has significant amount of aluminium while the Monitor is all stainless steel.
If you want lightness combined with robustness I think the Windpilot is the answer myself. I have lifted a few of those onto and off teh transom.
Click to expand...

My Aeries is the lift off which I bought because I can undo 2 captive bolts without a spanner & the whole unit ( apart from the mounting to the transom) lifts off in about 20 seconds. This suits me for racing as it takes the weight off the transom. It hinges at this point as well so it can be just hinged up clear of the water when not in use.
All a great idea but I suspect that it was discontinued due to its great expense.
Later ones are considerably lighter & the ones of Danish manufacture are lighter still but cannot be detached like mine can. The current Danish manufacturer actually says that my model has the best bearings & hence freest movement of all the models.
Still not very good tracking in F6+when there is a big sea running on the stern quarter but as my fairly new Raymarine AV100 just give up on this & just cuts out ( B..y useless object) after half an hour, I cannot complain about the Aeries
 
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