Self Steering

[maineboat]

Would like to buy used but good self steering gear for 32ft sailboat. maineboat

[maineboat]

goodluck.maineboat

[olson34]

Seems like every April at the big swap meet in Seattle someone shows up with a used Aries or Monitor. Other brands, too, like the old (but good shape) Sailomat I saw a couple years ago.
So try to attend your local swap meets and have some cash and be ready to negotiate a deal!

L

[mitiempo]

Look on Craigs List or similar - in boating areas used Monitors and other vanes often are listed.

[jeffr-here]

I have a used aries wind vane that came with the boat I bought. I don't know a lot about them, but was told by person I bought my boat from that it is complete, just needs to be rebuilt. I was going to list it, but if you are interested, lets see if we can make a deal.

Jeff
813.362.6553

[Captnshaw]

I had a Windpilot vane on my Newport WINDPILOT: selfsteering under sail It was the most used accessory on the boat. Simple, quite, strong and reliable. You had to get the boat pointed and the sails set right for it to work well. I sailed from SF to Mobile, AL with it, short handed and it never let us down. I chose it because it was the best looking one out there, just so happened it worked perfectly.

As with women good looks are not a reliable indicator of performance. But if you are patient and skillful you can get them to do what you want most of the time.

[arvicola-amphibius]

My current love came equipped with a Hydrovane. What I really like is that the auxiliary rudder is truly that, and will steer the boat should something nasty happen to the main rudder.
Previously I had a Tasmanian-made system which was all-stainless, really strong and looked great, but I never got it to work right. I'm not saying it was no good, just that I never mastered it. Also it needed a good 10 knots of breeze to steer. The Hydrovane is alloy and doesn't look as pretty as stainless, though it looks as if it would take a lot to break it. It is easy to use and steers down to about 5 or 6 knots of breeze. You do have to either antifoul the aux rudder or pull it once every two weeks or so to clean it before the barnacles get a grip. The rudder does not simply swing up like some other types - you have to hang off the transom and pull a pin. It can be a bit tricky getting it back on to its shaft and aligning the pin, so don't attempt this at sea! And the rudder doesn't float, so it needs to have a safety line attached to the boat.
Bear in mind that none of these things work on a dead downwind run.