Self Steering 'South Atlantic' Wind Vane

[TonyMills]

Hi, I have been trying to find information about this gear. The web site: www.south-atlantic.com.ar gives good information but I can find no independent viewpoints. They are apparently constructed in Germany and marketing is done from Argentina. The price is reasonable (most of the others are way overpriced!)

Any advice appreciated
Regards
Tony

 

[doug748]

.....The price is reasonable (most of the others are way overpriced!)
Any advice appreciated
Regards
Tony

Sorry, I can't give you any help with the South Atlantic gear, it does seem difficult to get any first hand experience and advice about the lesser known steering gears.
It seems to work on the well tried Haslar principle much like the Windpilot. Here is another one, which you may not have seen, available at a similar sort of price:
http://windvane.co.uk/
This one is made in South Africa and marketed from the UK. First hand experience is thin on the ground but I do know that Mike Perham and his Father used this kit across the Atlantic prior to Mike's Round the World adventure.

 

[rob2]

No personal experience, I'm afraid. It looks to be manufactured from aluminium tube rather than stainless and the linkage is a z-crank in a slot, which may be a little insensitive downwind in light airs.

Others to consider must include:

Custom built with several nice features such as remote course setting,
http://www.sea-feather.co.uk/

Stainless Walt, using an upside down (USD) windvane and conventional bevel gear linkage, http://www.mrvane.com/

Hope your search goes well,
Rob.

 

[30boat]

Sorry, I can't give you any help with the South Atlantic gear, it does seem difficult to get any first hand experience and advice about the lesser known steering gears.
It seems to work on the well tried Haslar principle much like the Windpilot. Here is another one, which you may not have seen, available at a similar sort of price:
http://windvane.co.uk/
This one is made in South Africa and marketed from the UK. First hand experience is thin on the ground but I do know that Mike Perham and his Father used this kit across the Atlantic prior to Mike's Round the World adventure.

It looks similar tot the Sailomat.I was once on a long trip where we had one.There were signs of corrosion when the thing was no more than three months old.I'm not comfortable with those aluminium castings being sprayed with seawater all the time.The stainless ones are better IMO but expensive.

 

[DownWest]

The Aires used(uses) aluminium casting to durable effect, but I suppose it depends on the alloy.
A

Just looked a bit closer, and the offset bearing for the servo paddle would not be my first choice, IMHO. Better supported both sides (or fore and aft in this case)

Personal gripe. I've tidied up some letters from non English speaking companies to Brit customers. So why don't people who put up English sections of their web pages get someone to proof read them? Not a great first impression for a client.
A

( This evening's Bordeaux is not as good as I thought...)

 

[sailor211]

looks very much like a windpilot, and users of a windpilot got any comments?

 

[fishermantwo]

I would suggest you pose the same question at http://www.cruisenews.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=62

It is basically a Walt Murray design using some nice castings and some stock sized tubing. I have a similar one under construction at the moment made out of stainless steel with cedar vane and Tasmanian hardwood paddle. Cheap to make, probably about $50 but many hours of labour, its easy to see why they cost so much.

Keep an eye out on Ebay, there was a Fleming there recently that never got a bid.

 

[TonyMills]

Thanks

Thanks for the useful advice. I'm making more enquiries about the Vectavane and the Neptune.
Regards Tony

 

[mitiempo]

Try this link. http://www.selfsteering.com/Introduction.asp
Made in the US of stainless steel and more affordable than the better known vanes.

 

[theguerns]

windvane steering

Having sailed all the oceans in all sorts of boats I have seen most of the windvane systems. The ones that have impressed me most as doing the job in all winds are as follow in list of choise.
Windpilot pacific & pacific light
Neptune
Cape horne
I woould only go for a survo pendilum system as they work best especialy in the higher winds

 

[macd]

Sorry, I can't give you any help with the South Atlantic gear, it does seem difficult to get any first hand experience and advice about the lesser known steering gears.
It seems to work on the well tried Haslar principle much like the Windpilot. Here is another one, which you may not have seen, available at a similar sort of price:
http://windvane.co.uk/
This one is made in South Africa and marketed from the UK. First hand experience is thin on the ground but I do know that Mike Perham and his Father used this kit across the Atlantic prior to Mike's Round the World adventure.

The system your link leads to is uncannily similar to the Windpilot. Readers can make up their own minds whether this is coincidence. Some reports in the excellent cruisenews site mentioned above suggest that (early examples of?) the Neptune sytem had some damping/yawing problems. Some seemingly well-informed posters suggested that the 'horizontal axis' was perhaps too close to horizontal to have sufficient damping effect. (On most horizontal axis systems, the axis is actually around 15 degrees from horizontal for this very reason.) Later examples may well be different.

For an overview of self-steering sytems, it's well worth downloading Peter Forthmann's book, free from www.windpilot.de/en/Ra/raseren.html
Being the owner of Windpilot, he's no doubt a little biased, but there's stacks of solid info in there.

I have a Windpilot (name of Jeeves) and have nothing but praise for it/him. Paying full price for it is my only connection with the company. It's neat, elegant, and works on all points of sail. If there's enough wind to sail, there's enough to steer. Despite the praise often lavished on other types of system, like 'the guerns' I would not consider any set-up except horizontal axis servo-pendulum (cue offended counter-claims...) To my mind, any other type is missing a crucial trick. I'm happy to explain the servo principle to anyone not familiar with it.

 

[vyv_cox]

I have a Windpilot (name of Jeeves) and have nothing but praise for it/him. Paying full price for it is my only connection with the company. It's neat, elegant, and works on all points of sail. If there's enough wind to sail, there's enough to steer. Despite the praise often lavished on other types of system, like 'the guerns' I would not consider any set-up except horizontal axis servo-pendulum (cue offended counter-claims...) To my mind, any other type is missing a crucial trick. I'm happy to explain the servo principle to anyone not familiar with it.

I had a Windpilot until recently but had to sell it as it is incompatible with stern-to mooring and a swim platform. Prior to that it had been excellent, does exactly what you say. One of the things I liked about it in particular was that in a seaway it did exactly the same as a good helmsman does, i.e. react to waves to offset the course before the rudder over-steers down the wave. It would steer well in conditions that an electronic pilot couldn't come close to coping with.

 

[water frog]

South Atlantic windvane S 470

The South Atlantic, its a great windvane and worked perfectly on my Bavaria 36 .
The windvane is a better skipper than me, very sensitive. I left Scotland in Oct and sailed to Canaries, Cap Verde, Caribbean, Panama, Galapogos and across the Pacific and Australia. I am enjoying Australia, but am looking forward to running in the Indian Ocean as the S/Atlantic steers so well down wind.
I started useing my windvane in the Atlantic. It takes a bit of getting used to like all vanes. But now it is easy and steers me when ever I want. As a single handed sailor I would not want to be at sea without it.

 

[davey]

South Atlantic Windvanes

Hi, I have been trying to find information about this gear. The web site: www.south-atlantic.com.ar gives good information but I can find no independent viewpoints. They are apparently constructed in Germany and marketing is done from Argentina. The price is reasonable (most of the others are way overpriced!)

Any advice appreciated
Regards
Tony

A friend has a South Atlantic windvane on his Robert Ives 4-21. With this kit he has sailed from Plymouth UK to the Caribbean. There has been some wear of the cam mechanism but the replacement part was not expensive. Unfortunately the vane has now broken, the aluminium rod has snapped. The damage was caused by a freak wave during a storm. From what I can gather the boat was hit on the stern by a wave that reached as high as the air paddle. It must have been a big wave as the boat did a 360. Good job its built like a brick outhouse. If you can afford it buy the excellent Peter Forthmann Pacific Windpilot Light (but it costs about £1500 AFAIK) The SA costs far less and does the job OK. For the real tightwads there is a Dutch firm that sells plans and kits of parts. Allegedly one of their vanes has crossed the Adriatic, wow! I was going to build one of these vanes for the skipper but when we saw the engineering drawings we decided to give it a miss. One problem that pocket cruiser owners will have is getting a windvane that is light enough and small enough. The Neptune looked promising but it is too big for an Ives 4-21.