Hi Martin,
I'm still trying to get my hands on a manaul. I haven't had much luck. But I have got some very good advice from the people at this forum regarding fine tuning the sailomat's performance.
Cruising Sailor • View topic - Help needed with Sailomat 601
A previous boat came with a Monitor and, with no previous windvane experience, I had it working perfectly within 5 minutes. My experience with the Sailomat has been the opposite, but I think I got some bad advice at the the start which led me astray.
Mine was in good shape when I got her but not really 'like new'. I disassembled the whole thing to free up seized nuts and bolts, lubricate, and add new TefGel. I also opened and cleaned up the bearings. If you're even remotely mechanically inclined you should have no problem. There is a set of rollers top and bottom as well as ball bearings at the top.
Oh, one more thing. I have an instructional video. Its almost 700mb though. I'm happy to send it to you if you know of an internet service that will transfer a file that big. Or I can burn and send a cd. The video is all about assembling and installing. it doesn't provide much in the the way of technical details, but I found it helpful.
In exchange, please keep up to speed with how well your sailomat works for you, as i'm beginning to get frustrated. What size/type boat do you have? Wheel or tiller steering?
cheers,
George