Windhunter Autopilot

[Guest]

I have been sailing on a Prout Snowgoose fitted with a Windhunter. This can allegedly steer by windvane or compass but relies on a towed propeller to prrovide hydraulic and electrical power. On a good day it can provide enough electtricity to operate the Cetrek autopilot.
We have got it to work from time to time but now have lost the propeller when the connecting link failed running before a gale. The alternatives we have tried, made for generators, are not powerful enough.
Does anyone have any experience, good or bad, of this equipment or have a spare propeller or possibly details of the reuiremnts?
The company making it seems to no longer exist.

 

[jamesjermain]

This product came and went in a blaze of hype, claim and counter claim, and finally law suits. The inventor failed to produce any independently verifiable test data to support his claims and would not let any yachting magazine, here or in the States, have one to test.
The idea was fascinating, it's a pity it was not better researched and executed.


JJ

 

[ultrea]

You are practically unique in having success with Windhunter. It cost me
L4000 and almost a nervous breakdown after destroying two seasons. You will find numerous references to this equipment on the sailing internet, largely from furious owners tryng to get their money back from the now bankrupt, and previously very litigious owner.
I think the impellor is the same as Aquair, who made them for Windhunter. I think US owners were trying to sue Yachting World at one stage, for publishing a favourable review, written i seem to recall, by Windhunter's US sales manager.

 

[Andrew_Bray]

Sorry to trespass, JJ, but Nigel Calder did fit one to his Crealock 37. And took it off again in a big hurry. You should ask him why.

 

[jamesjermain]

I remember, now. Problems with pipes and transoms and holes among other things. Am I right?

JJ

 

[Guest]

No - none of these. The basic problem is that there seems no reason why it should work as it posseses no feedback of amount off course or rudder position to the control unit. Without these I cannot see why it should maintain a stable course. In fact it does not but with a relatively stable catermaran it will maintain a general heeding in the right direction, but with considerable yawing, in light conditions, such as a spinnaker run in force 2 or 3. Our current problem is that the undersize propeller, which is all we have been able to obtain of the shelf, does not produce enough power in these conditions to reliably turn the rudder.