Old Aries or Hebridean windvane?

stevie69p said:
Not too sure why I deserved your wee rant there, since I was only stating my own experience and not commenting on your own boat. But then if you buy a boat that's not directionally stable of course any steering system is going to find that harder to cope with.
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Apologies ! I did think that I was "ranting" at you. The point was also being made for others reading the thread, not just you
 
I have a Hebridean and find the steering 'oar' to be extremely powerful at the normal width and with a length that gives 600 mm below the wake level as per the design.I believe it could be used as a standby rudder (provided you still have a pivot) ,but only well off the wind as it would of course be totally unbalanced at its normal rake.So rather like' conventional' oar steering ,albeit with a tiller attached.However it does what it's designed to do very well,over the full wind range,and is most impressive in higher wind and seas.
 
Daydream believer said:
Apologies ! I did think that I was "ranting" at you. The point was also being made for others reading the thread, not just you
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Actually, I've just re-read what you originally wrote, and it is me that should in fact apologise to you. When you wrote "that helps enormously", I took that to inferring sarcastically that the information wasn't of much use to you, when in fact you were most likely writing about the fact that a long keel boat being directionally more stable will help enormously with how a wind vane will cope.

So yeah... sorry about that! My bad... (slopes off sheepishly...)
 
Daydream believer said:
I have a lift up Aeries on a 31 ft hanse. i bought it because the whole unit can be removed in seconds for racing & the oar can be lifted clear of the water at the end of the day.
Not having used any other vane( other than home made ones on a different boat i owned) i cannot comment on how it compares.
However, i do feel that it is a little heavy for the boat. taken with liferaft & spare fuel & all the other gear that a modern AWB tends to store in the aft it all gets too much. I do not have the problem that others talk about with bearings .I find they all work perfectly well. perhaps that is a feature of the lift up.
If I was given the option to change I might go for a monitor or perhaps a Sailomat or something lighter. the Aeries performs badly down wind on my Hanse. But that might be just because my Hanse is so lively. I do use the Aeries a lot because the Raymarine AV100 autopilot is a pretty carp autopilot- but that is another story.
I will say that the Aeries is very powerful in strong winds & is great upwind. But i expect most are
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We have a Windpilot. Its a lot lighter than an Aires and takes up a lot less room on the transom. It also has a rudder you just swing up when you have finished using it. Our Windpilot has been on the stern since 2014 and done a lot of miles. I have just taken it off the stern to service it. First time since it was fitted. It had gone a little stiff. It turned out it was a bolt that was tight so now its cleaned and all is light and balanced.
Down wind ours is good in 10 kts of apparent wind but when it gets to about 8 kts it starts to struggle. In all other directions it is great. I dont find that I have to balance the sails too much as the Windpilot is powerful.
We have 3.5 turns lock to lock on our steering so I installed 1:2 pulleys in the steering lines so we now double the turning at the wheel and the Windpilot still has tons of spare power. Its a great bit of kit
 
have you by any chance looked at the south Atlantic as I had been considering that for mine and I have been quoted 1200 pound one for my 27 footer
 
I have an Aries lift up model #5. The connecting rod between the ball on the vane bracket and the ball on the main servo gear decided to go for a swim with no lifejacket. I am looking for someone parting out this model or maybe, maybe someone knows the supplier of the spring clips that held the rod to the two 1/2" stainless steel balls. The current Aries manufacturer in The Netherlands can make the rod, the end fittings, but doesn't have a source for these stainless steel spring clips. I need two. I am looking for a machinist that can make two of these clips or a company that could produce 100 - 500 of them

In the attached photos, the one with the blue background shows the shape of the spring clip, I just don't need the clevis pin or its attachment.
 

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