Windvane self steering - aft cabin, wheelhouse.

[Wandering Star]

Right, difficult to describe but fairly simple question - Advice needed!

I have seen a boat I’d like to own (Barbary 32 ketch) which has an aft cabin and a permanent wheelhouse. The steering is a hydraulic system with wheel mounted in the wheelhouse. It is essential (for me) that whatever boat I do purchase will accept a Monitor Windvane self steering system mounted on the transom. Will the aftcabin/wheelhouse steering prove to be a dealbreaker for this type of boat? Or can the Monitor do its job with a few compromises/modifications and tweaks in respect of routing the steering lines to the wheel

Thanks for any advice observations.

 

[LoneHort]

why are you wedded to a Monitor? This is what I have for my Salar 40 with an aft cabin and a midship wheelhouse from the company that bought you the monitor
https://www.scanmarinternational.com/auto-helm and no more routing lines to the wheelhouse.

 

[Kelpie]

Surely an aux rudder type system is the way to go when you have hydraulic steering?

 

[Deleted member 36384]

I have a Monitor with an aft cabin, centre cockpit but no wheelhouse. The Monitor can be rigged a number of ways two the jokey wheel on the main steering wheel. On my own boat both the steering lines exit the Monitor over the push pit where they are turned at right angles via simple turning blocks connected to the push pit, this happens again at the quarter to direct the lines along the side deck. At the cockpit another turning block diverts both lines over the coaming and onto the jokey wheel where one goes to the top and the other the bottom. It works fine. You can also contact Monitor and they sell upgrade kits for better sheaves with bearings, mine does not the upgrade. Each line can also go down each side of the boat and meet in the middle at the wheel, more suitable for a tiller but also okay for a wheel. I suggest that if your wheel is off centre in the wheel house you direct both lines down the same side as the wheel. On my own boat, I could not rig one line per side as the cockpit locket lid would be directly under the port line and could not be opened; check for things that may be in the way of the line run. All possible combinations are shown on the Monitor web site. In my opinion it should not be a deal breaker.

 

[KellysEye]

It is likely the wheelhouse will split the wind so that when it reaches a windvane it will come from two directions.

 

[SailSouth]

Personally I'd go for a stand alone wind vane system with it's own aux rudder (I have a wind-pilot Pacific Plus on my CC cruiser). That said, a Monitor should work ok but you need to ensure friction in all turning blocks etc is kept to an absolute minimum to ensure that there is no drop in steering performance (particularly in light airs).

Speak to the UK agent for Monitor (Robin at Sims Marine), he's a mate of mine and I'm sure he will be happy to advise.

Hope this helps

 

[KellysEye]

>It is likely the wheelhouse will split the wind so that when it reaches a windvane it will come from two directions.

I forgot to say that is upwind, a windvane would be fine reaching and downwind

 

[Wandering Star]

Thanks for the advice, the reason for asking was because I already have a Monitor (well, almost). I’ve used different windvane self steering systems at various times and am more than happy with the Monitors performance so wanted to find out how feasible it would be to use it on a boat I potentially had in mind to buy.

On balance, I’ve decided to buy a different boat to the one the original question was about which I know will make for a simple installation for my Monitor.