Wind Vane drawings

[davey]

I am looking for drawing for diy Wind Vane self steering. There is a lot of information on the Internet and a few sketches but no comprehensive drawings to allow for home made fabrication of a wind vane.

Has anyone made a wind vane? do you have drawings?

I welcome your comments

It depends on how far you plan to sail. For coastal pottering about a less expensive vane can be used than one intended for a circumnavigation.

http://www.mistervee.com/?q=Mister-Vee's-unique-aproach-to-self-steering

 

[davey]

I am looking for drawing for diy Wind Vane self steering. There is a lot of information on the Internet and a few sketches but no comprehensive drawings to allow for home made fabrication of a wind vane.

Has anyone made a wind vane? do you have drawings?

I welcome your comments

I nearly built a Mister Vee kit for "Captain Bligh" but when we saw the drawings and plastic gears we gave it a miss. At the time the record distance covered with a kit built unit was crossing the Adriatic - big deal! A lot depends on the boat size as there are a lot of commercial units for thirty footers. Once one gets down to the 21 foot pocket cruiser size the choice of commercial units is very limited. Peter Forthmanns Pacific Wind Pilot (light) is the Rolls-Royce model for that size of boat but it is expensive. The South Atlantic competitor is less costly but it uses a peg-in-slot cam mechanism. Nevertheless "Captain Blighs" SA vane has steered him across the oggin to the Caribbean. The cam slot did wear somewhat but a new one was not very expensive. The Neptune vane looked interesting but it was far too big. As to the Hydrovane the consensus of opinion is that it only provides a SMALL amount of steering and one needs a big boat for those. With Hydrovanes the boat needs to be set up to run on its own in the right direction. The vane merely tweaks the steering. Good luck!

 

[KellysEye]

Two things to bear in mind. The weight of the boat determines the power needed and thus the size of the sail and the rudder, one size does not fit all. Also ensure the power of the rudder can be adjusted - light winds need less rudder, strong more. That's probably why the old vanes weren't any good.

 

[lukedh]

There is some free design and construction details on four different types of wind van on the faymarine website.