Self-steering

[SaltyC]

I can quite easily keep a good lookout and hand steer. I'm sure most people can.....

Agreed. BUT short handed 3 hours on the tiller is not my idea of fun. With an autopilot / windvane I can look around, fill in the log book and make a coffee / cup a soup whilst keeping a good lookout.
I even have the a...holes and admirals lower washboard with a seat to keep warm and stay out of the weather.
The latter with autopilot much appreciated last week sailing shorthanded without her normal 12 crew!

 

[zoidberg]

Myself I rebuilt the companionway a bit on the last boat.... to create a 100mm wide flat wood seat and side cheeks.... while the vane or a/p took care of the cold night bits and my job was to look slowly around and head up over the dodger and listen every few minutes .. with toasty toes too . Perfik

This was a 'quick lash-up' which served me well and avoided pressure sores....

 

[Blueboatman]

This was a 'quick lash-up' which served me well and avoided pressure sores....

That’s even better
I really like that
Nice windvane btw

 

[zoidberg]

The windvane, well-known to the cognoscenti, is a 'SeaFeather' from Devon. I helped shipwright Bill Churchhouse fit it ( he wouldn't take 'No' for an answer ) in 2015.

Apart from that, the whole boat - Hurley 24/70 - was a lash-up. It cost me £500, unseen on a handshake and, after being stripped out 'for racing,' took me to Baltimore/Co.Cork and back, without dramas....

I got my money back.

 

[mjcoon]

This was a 'quick lash-up' which served me well and avoided pressure sores....

But bosun's chairs are recommended to have a solid seat. Does the strap not pinch a bit?

 

[Blueboatman]

The windvane, well-known to the cognoscenti, is a 'SeaFeather' from Devon. I helped shipwright Bill Churchhouse fit it ( he wouldn't take 'No' for an answer ) in 2015.

Apart from that, the whole boat - Hurley 24/70 - was a lash-up. It cost me £500, unseen on a handshake and, after being stripped out 'for racing,' took me to Baltimore/Co.Cork and back, without dramas....

I got my money back.

Well, as lash ups go I would head out to sea in that one

 

[zoidberg]

Someone will be along soon, mjcoon, to tell you it wasn't intended as a Bosun's Chair....

For that kind of stuff I have a full-on arborist's Fall Arrest Harness and a MastMate.

As for the goolies, there are some questions a gentleman simply does not answer - and which a gentleman simply does not ask!

 

[zoidberg]

Well, as lash ups go I would head out to sea in that one

The wee boat sat for three or four weeks on my Tamar Club mooring while I sorted out what rubbish to leave behind and what rubbish to take with me.

'Pyxi' had a babystay mast-fitting and I decided to use it by hanging on it a small furling jib remaindered from the 16' Catapult I'd used for dinghy-camping in a previous incarnation..... 'just in case', and as I had it gathering dust and spiders.

To facilitate that I took aboard a 15' aluminium ladder which I propped up centrally against the mast ( with a security strop, of course ) which stood there for quite some time. Of course, peeps in the club were blerry nosy politely curious, and eventually one of them asked me diffidently, when I stood at the bar recharging my pint pot, what the ladder was for.

Those among us with well-tuned antennae will know when a room falls just a smidgen quieter, that onlookers nearby listeners were straining to overhear my answer, which was....

"Well, it's for when I get to Ireland, I can climb up that, sit on the crosstrees, and con my boat through the coral reefs into Baltimore."

...which rather confirmed the impression some of them had formed of my sanity.

 

[Roberto]

Another form of heresy

There was a thread some years back suggesting that to sit in the companionway whilst on passage was worthy of keel hauling - some agreed some didn’t

 

[Frank Holden]

Someone will be along soon, mjcoon, to tell you it wasn't intended as a Bosun's Chair....

For that kind of stuff I have a full-on arborist's Fall Arrest Harness and a MastMate.

As for the goolies, there are some questions a gentleman simply does not answer - and which a gentleman simply does not ask!

Looks like a galley bum strap to me.

 

[mjcoon]

Someone will be along soon, mjcoon, to tell you it wasn't intended as a Bosun's Chair....

Oh dear, sitting is sitting. Same arse...

 

[zoidberg]

Looks like a galley bum strap to me.

Nope. Close, but.....

....it's a hefty lifting sling - rated at 4 ton.

I have two long ones - for boat lifting - and two short ones ( as illustrated - which were very cheap at the time, so I bought two 'just in case' )

 

[Telstar26]

By the way, anybody thinking about building a vane should consider the kit from Hebridean. Sadly the designer recently passed away, in not sure what that means for the future of the company, but a couple of my friends built them are well extremely impressed.

It's still going strong - Ian Kirkwood has taken over from John Fleming. See HEBRIDEAN SELF-STEERING WIND VANE or Facebook https://m.facebook.com/1195780393772623/

I have one on my Parker 21 and it's transformed the way I sail; it's brilliant!